Essentials of Bedside Cardiology / Contemporary Cardiology (PDF)

Because medical technologies for diagnosing cardiovascular disorders, such as echocardiography, can occasionally prove mistaken or misleading, many physicians know that it is best not to rely solely on their results. In this significantly enhanced second edition of his classic work, Essentials of Bedside Cardiology With a Complete Course in Heart Sounds and Murmurs on CD, Second Edition, Jules Constant, MD, offers an alternative to this problem by helping the physician to perfect the fine art of history-taking and physical examination. Moving beyond total reliance on laboratory data to the expert evaluation of personal patient data, Dr. Constant summarizes forty years of clinical experience with a proven battery of time-tested questions designed to elicit the crucial nuances of cardiac-related symptoms, and then provides a complete differential diagnosis for each demonstrated symptom. His method includes numerous practical tips for obtaining cardiac clues from physical appearance, measuring arterial and jugular pulses and pressures, and using a stethoscope. The core of the book is an extensive discussion of the art and science of diagramming and grading heart sounds and murmurs, ranging from S1 through S4 to ejection, systolic regurgitant, diastolic, and abdominal murmurs. An invaluable, stand-alone compact disc offering a seventy-minute course in auscultation, complete with heartsounds taken from actual patients over the course of forty years, clearly illustrates all the sounds and murmurs discussed.
Successfully demonstrating how to balance modern technology with increased personal skill in history-taking and physical examination, Essentials of Bedside Cardiology With a Complete Course in Heart Sounds and Murmurs on CD, Second Edition, offers all physicians, novice and practiced alike, a rigorous and well-proven methodology for precisely diagnosing and treating the widest range of cardiac patients today.