August 15, 2018
by Rick Musialowski Jr., MD, FACC, FASE As the director of cardiovascular education at Atrium Health’s Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute, my primary role is the education of learners of…
November 15, 2017
Statins have pleiotropic effects...the ability to reduce heart disease risk and cardiovascular death via an unknown mechanism, certainly beyond the LDL cholesterol lowering that they can achieve…
October 30, 2017
Here is a nifty ECG case with two unreleated, but interesting findings on one ECG tracing. One life-threatening diagnosis and the other a rare incidental finding leading to heart failure in this…
October 24, 2017
Ever hear of someone dying from a broken heart? Well...the “broken heart syndrome” a.k.a. “Takotsubo cardiomyopathy” or “stress induced cardiomyopathy” or…
September 19, 2017
A 68-year-old male with no past medical history besides morbid obesity comes to the office complaining of fatigue and shortness of breath. He does not feel dizzy and has never passed out. He takes…
September 12, 2017
What a classic ECG case not usually caught on a 12-lead ECG! A progression of 4 ECGs here helps to teach one the most important ECG lessons any practicing healthcare professional needs to know in…
August 22, 2017
Here is a case I will never forget. A 45 year old man with reported no prior medical history comes in to the ER screaming of excruciating acute onset substernal chest pains 20 minutes prior to…
July 5, 2017
Not your typical atrial fibrillation case walking through the ER door today. Hold on to your eyeballs for this case with two major teaching points.
A 38 year old obese but otherwise healthy male…
June 11, 2017
To become a cardiologist is not an easy task. Getting through medical school, residency and then getting accepted into the most competitive fellowship program out there is tough. All cardiologists…
May 18, 2017
Coronary calcium scoring (CCS) is arguably the best method to screen for coronary artery disease. The most interesting part of this test is the direct to consumer advertising that occurs to the…
May 8, 2017
Right now, 40 million Americans take statins to lower cholesterol in an attempt to prevent complications of atherosclerosis such as heart disease and stroke. Despite this, heart disease is still the…
April 26, 2017
We see this all the time: A routine ECG shows a left anterior fascicular block (also known as LAFB or left anterior hemiblock). Who cares? Does this mean anything, and is it any cause for concern?…
March 28, 2017
It is important for us, as health care providers, to sometimes pause and reflect on the way we each practice medicine. In our busy lives, it is a challenge to completely address all the needs of…
February 8, 2017
A 60-year-old male comes in complaining of cough, increasing severe shortness of breath and palpitations for 3 days. He has a mild chest pressure as well. His heart rate is 120 beats per minute…
July 26, 2016
There will be a handful of times in your career when you will be faced with a challenging medical scenario, and decisions that can mean life or death for the patient must be made quickly. Here is one…
June 20, 2016
How often do you see an ECG that is just a little off? Maybe the T wave is flat, oddly-shaped or inverted. Maybe the ST segment is coved, very minimally-depressed or shows some J point elevation. …
March 15, 2016
Here is a tricky case. Try to guess the diagnosis of this previously healthy 5-year-old male who starts to complain of difficulty breathing over the past 2 weeks. He used to be able to play with his…
May 1, 2015
Atrial fibrillation is extraordinarily common, and I see it an insane number of times. I have organized a set “spiel” to explain to patients how we deal with this annoying arrhythmia…
April 11, 2015
Here is a case dedicated to my daughter Kaylin who turned 4 today!
A previously healthy 18 year old female comes in being carried by a funny looking little round white guy with an orange pointy…
March 20, 2015
What does a donkey have in common with the pathophysiology and treatment of congestive heart failure? More than you might imagine actually. Here is how I like to explain how the medical treatment of…
February 8, 2015
During my cardiology career, I have run into some quite interesting scenarios of patients presenting with angina in rather unusual ways. This is no joke. These are real patient scenarios that I have…
September 1, 2014
Identifying an acute myocardial infarction on the 12-lead ECG is the most important thing you can learn in ECG interpretation. Time is muscle when treating heart attacks. Missing a ST segment…
June 4, 2014
Stress tests are a thing of the past. Make way for coronary CT angiography. Wide-eyed medical students might gather around a treadmill in 20 years to observe a patient doing a traditional stress…
March 6, 2014
Is the death of the stethoscope near? Why do we even listen to the heart anyway now that we have portable echocardiography? Is it a waste of time?
When I was in training to become a cardiologist, I…
March 5, 2014
As a medical student rounding on the wards, you might happen to have one of those cardiology attendings who gets some evil pleasure out of asking questions randomly to students ― commonly known as…
March 5, 2014
Thinking back to being a student, I can recall the struggle ― volume status and fluid overload. Congestive heart failure is the number one cause of hospital admission in the United States, so we…
March 4, 2014
Learning the art of ECG interpretation requires intellect, commitment, effort and — perhaps most importantly — an organized approach. I personally have spent thousands of hours (yes…
March 4, 2014
Thank you for visiting the LearnTheHeart.com Blog! I hope you find these articles educational, engaging and entertaining.
I first founded LearnTheHeart.com in 2003 as a 4th year medical student to…