Case Study An 82-year-old male presents to the office complaining of several months of shortness of breath and cough after walking two blocks or up a flight of stairs. He has also noted leg swelling and occasional palpitations. Past medical…
Case Study A 65-year-old male presents with exertional dyspnea for investigation. He states his dyspnea worsens when walking up a hill. For history, he has type 2 diabetes (treated with metformin), hypertension, dyslipidemia, and Barrett’s esophagus. He previously had an…
Case Study A 14-year-old boy presented following a sudden cardiac arrest (likely ventricular fibrillation) and was direct current (DC) cardioverted. Based on his clinical presentation and echocardiogram he was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM). Family history was negative. He was…
Case Study A 69-year-old man presented with progressive leg edema, abdominal fullness, shortness of breath, and 30-lb weight gain over the course of 24 months. Past medical history included hypertension and hyperlipidemia on medical therapy. He denied any history of…
Introduction While coronary artery disease (CAD) and hypertension are common comorbidities in diastolic dysfunction, and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), relatively less attention has been paid to the interaction between CAD and diastolic dysfunction. This chapter is devoted…
Introduction A classification serves to bridge the gap between ignorance and knowledge. J.F. Goodwin Historically, restrictive cardiomyopathies were among the three primary forms of idiopathic heart muscle diseases, characterized by the World Health Organization as “restrictive filling and reduced diastolic…
Definition of Stage D Heart Failure The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) guideline for the management of heart failure (HF) classifies disease progression into four stages. Stage A includes patients with risk factors for HF…
Introduction Mild degrees of valvular heart disease are very prevalent in adult patients with heart failure symptoms. Given that these are often patients with hypertension, aortic valve sclerosis and mitral annular calcification, frequently accompanied by some degree of mitral regurgitation,…
Introduction Hypertension (HTN) is the single most important and widespread cardiovascular diagnosis in the developed world and, as such, an enormous public health problem. With the recent change in guidelines reducing the systolic blood pressure (BP)–lowering target from 140 to…
Case Study A 56-year-old obese woman with exertional dyspnea was referred for evaluation of suspected heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). She had a past medical history of Crohn Crohn’s disease, hypothyroidism, and asthma. She had been medically treated…