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Cardiovascular Disease: Past, Present, and Future

Additional content is available online at Elsevier eBooks for Practicing Clinicians The Birth Although the heart was recognized as a vital organ in early human history, its function was not understood but was widely debated over millennia. In 1628, William Harvey, a London physician ( Fig. 1.1 ) who had trained in the great medical school in Padua, Italy, published a monograph, De Motu Cordis, An…

Common genetic disorders associated with heart disease

Echocardiographic screening in patients with genetic disease plays an important role in daily practice. Early detection of possible cardiac complications is essential and enables prompt treatment. Some disorders have very typical echocardiographic features. This chapter describes some of the most common genetic disorders associated with heart disease. Williams syndrome Williams syndrome is caused by a heterozygous deletion of a specific region of chromosome seven that contains,…

Cardiac tumors

In children, most cases of primary heart tumors are benign, while malignant lesions are rare. The most common tumors in childhood include cardiac rhabdomyoma and fibroma . Cardiac myxoma is rarely diagnosed in the pediatric population. Secondary metastatic malignancies are uncommon in children, but represent the largest group of cardiac tumors in adults. There is an association between certain types of tumors and some genetic syndromes, that…

Cardiomyopathies

Cardiomyopathy is an umbrella term for a group of myocardial disorders characterized by a structural and functional abnormality of the heart muscle, which is not secondary to other causes such as hypertension, congenital heart disease, valvar disease, or coronary artery disease. Based on morphological and functional features, cardiomyopathies can be divided into subtypes, including in particular dilated , hypertrophic , and restrictive cardiomyopathy . Noncompaction cardiomyopathy…

Functionally single ventricle

Functionally single ventricle is an umbrella term for a group of severe congenital heart defects that are not suitable for the creation of a biventricular circulation and that can only be palliated using a univentricular approach. This is mainly due to the hypoplasia of one of the ventricles and the inability to generate adequate cardiac output, as in hypoplastic left heart syndrome, pulmonary atresia with intact…