Netter’s Cardiology - Marschall S. Runge
Год выпуска: 2010Автор: Marschall S. Runge, George A. Stouffer, Cam Patterson
Жанр: Кардиология
Формат: PDF
Качество: OCR
Описание: The first edition of Netter's Cardiology was an effort to present to clinicians the ever-increasing amount of medical information on cardiovascular diseases in a concise and highly visual format. The challenge that clinicians face in "keeping up" with the medical literature has continued to grow in the 5 years since the first edition of Netter's Cardiology. This need to process the ever-expanding medical information base and apply new findings to the optimal care of patients is acute in all areas of medicine, but perhaps it is most challenging in disciplines that require practitioners to understand a broad spectrum of evidence-based medicine, such as the field of cardiovascular diseases. The explosion of medical knowledge is also a very real educational issue for learners at all levels—students, residents, practicing physicians— who must rapidly determine what is and is not important, organize the key information, and then apply these principles effectively in clinical settings.
For the second edition of Netter's Cardiology, our goal was to produce an improved text that keeps these issues in clear focus and also addresses important clinical areas that were not well covered in the first edition or in many other cardiology texts. To accomplish this expansion while maintaining a concise text that could be used as a ready reference, we again avoided exhaustive treatment of topics. We also have made every effort to present the essential information in a reader-friendly format that increases the reader's ability to learn the key facts without getting lost in details that can obfuscate the learning process.
After a careful review of reader comments about the first edition, we made some substantial changes to achieve our educational goals. Chapters were added and topics expanded to address reader concerns about the lack of coverage of a number of important topics commonly encountered in clinical practice. Examples include these new chapters: Chest Radiography, Echocardiography, Stress Testing and Nuclear Imaging, Cardiac Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Left and Right Heart Catheterization, Identifying the Patient at High Risk for Acute Coronary Syndrome: Plaque Rupture and "Immediate Risk," Cardiogenic Shock after Myocardial Infarction, Stress-Induced Cardiomyopathy, Supraventricular Tachycardia, Sleep Disorders and the Cardiovascular System, Cardiovascular Toxicity of Noncardiac Medications, and Sudden Cardiac Death in Athletes. The chapter subheadings of "Optimum Treatment" and "Avoiding Treatment Errors" are new additions that address concerns about therapeutic errors that can lead to patient harm. We also added boxes and algorithms that provide in an easy-to-read format quick overviews of critical diagnostic and therapeutic information covered in the text. (See the sample algorithm on the following page.) References are annotated in the second edition of Netter's Cardiology to guide the reader to a more in-depth review, if considered necessary. As in the first edition, the contributing authors have taken advantage of the genius of Frank Netter by carefully selecting the best of his artwork to illustrate the most important clinical concepts covered in each chapter. When Netter artwork was unavailable or difficult to apply to illustrate modern clinical concepts, we again utilized the great artistic talents of Carlos A. G. Machado, MD, to create new artwork or to skillfully edit and update some of Frank Netter's drawings. The combination of Dr. Machado's outstanding skills as a medical artist and his knowledge of the medical concepts being illustrated was an invaluable asset.
As in the first edition, we chose to use authors from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill or those with close ties to the university. This allowed us to select authors who are clinical authorities, many of whom are also well known for their national and international contributions. All have active clinical practices that require daily use of the information covered in their chapters, and all are well aware of the approach to patient management utilized by their peers at other institutions and in other practice settings. Many of the contributing authors of the first edition have continued on as second-edition authors and have provided updates. Each author, whether a previous contributor or not, was given clearly defined guidelines that emphasized the need to distill the large amount of complex information in his or her field and to present it concisely in a carefully prescribed format maintained across all chapters. The result is a text that is truly clinically useful and less of a compendium than is commonly the case in many medical texts.
We believe that the changes we have made in the second edition substantially improve Netter's Cardiology and ensure that it will continue to be a highly useful resource for all physicians, both generalists and subspecialists, who need to remain current in cardiology—from trainees to experienced practitioners. Whether we have succeeded will obviously be determined by our readers. Based on our experience with the revision of the first edition, we welcome the comments, suggestions, and criticisms of readers that will help us improve future editions of this work.