Cardiology Course FM

In our last episode we discussed conduction defects and pacemaker modes. Today we focus on one of the most important device therapies for heart failure: cardiac resynchronisation therapy, or CRT. For the right patient, it can transform breathlessness into an active life, shrink a dilated heart and reduce the risk of death. But around a third of patients don't respond as hoped. So who should receive CRT, how is it implanted, how do we make sure it works, and what are the new alternatives, such as conduction system pacing?

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today we're exploring the heart's wiring — the conduction system — and what happens when it fails. Sinus node disease, heart block and bundle branch block can cause dizziness, fainting, heart failure and even sudden death. And the pacemaker, one of the greatest inventions in medicine, can restore a normal life. But which patients need a pacemaker, and which mode should we choose — single chamber, dual chamber, biventricular, conduction system pacing, or the new leadless devices? We'll cover diagnosis, temporary and permanent pacing, mode selection and long-term management.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

In our last episode we explored the atrial arrhythmias. Today we move down to the ventricles, where arrhythmias can be the difference between life and death. Ventricular arrhythmias range from harmless extra beats to ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death, which claims millions of lives worldwide every year. We'll cover the mechanisms, how to interpret the ECG, how to investigate the underlying heart, and how to treat — from the emergency department to the cath lab and the electrophysiology suite.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today we're focusing on the atrial arrhythmias — the rhythm disturbances that arise in the upper chambers of the heart. They range from harmless atrial ectopic beats to atrial tachycardia, atrial flutter and, most importantly, atrial fibrillation, the commonest sustained arrhythmia in the world and a major cause of stroke and heart failure. We'll cover how to recognise them on the ECG, how to investigate them, and how to treat and manage them using the latest guidelines and trials.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today's topic is one that every doctor prescribes, every examiner asks about, and many of us find confusing: the antiarrhythmic drugs. How are they classified? How do they work at the level of the ion channels? When do we use them — and, just as importantly, when can they harm or even kill? From amiodarone and flecainide to beta-blockers, digoxin and adenosine, we'll cover classification, mechanisms, clinical effects and side effects.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today's topic touches millions of people, and perhaps many of our listeners personally: the health effects of excessive screen time and prolonged sitting. Software engineers, AI developers, data scientists and gamers often sit in front of screens for twelve, sixteen, even twenty hours a day, working through the night to meet deadlines or match time zones on the other side of the world. We'll discuss how this lifestyle affects the heart, the blood vessels and every other system in the body, how to detect problems early, and how to treat and prevent them.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today we're exploring a topic that is rapidly moving from the margins to the centre of cardiology: how our changing planet affects the heart. Global warming, record-breaking heat waves, El Nino cycles, wildfires and air pollution, and natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and landslides — all of these place enormous stress on the cardiovascular system. Heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and sudden deaths rise during and after these events. We'll discuss the mechanisms, how to recognise and diagnose cardiovascular problems in these situations, and how to treat, manage and prepare.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today we're tackling what many experts call the greatest epidemic of our time — the epidemic of coronary artery disease. It is the leading cause of death worldwide, and nowhere is the challenge greater than in South Asia, where heart attacks strike a decade earlier than in the West, often in people in their thirties and forties. We'll also look at how infectious epidemics, such as influenza and COVID-19, interact with coronary disease. And we'll cover diagnosis, treatment and, above all, prevention.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

Today we're exploring an area where cardiology meets rheumatology: the collagen vascular diseases, also called connective tissue diseases — lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic sclerosis, inflammatory myositis, Sjögren's syndrome, the spondyloarthropathies and the vasculitides. These conditions can affect every layer of the heart — the pericardium, the myocardium, the valves, the coronary arteries, the conduction system and the pulmonary circulation — and heart disease is now one of the leading causes of death in these patients. We'll cover how they affect the heart, how to diagnose cardiac involvement, and how to treat and manage it.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.

In a recent episode we covered bacterial infective endocarditis. Today we tackle one of its most frustrating forms: culture-negative endocarditis. The patient has fever, a murmur and a vegetation on the echo — yet every blood culture comes back sterile. Without an organism, how do we choose antibiotics, how long do we treat, and how do we know we've got the right diagnosis at all? We'll cover the causes, a systematic diagnostic approach, targeted and empirical treatment, and the role of surgery.

Guest: Dr. A M Thirugnanam, MD, MSICP, FSCAI, Ph.D., Senior Interventional Cardiologist, author, educator and founder of the Academy of Elite Doctors.
Host: Alexander Wood

Cardiology Course FM is the station for doctors, students, nurses and everyone who looks after the heart.

Learn more:
• Cardiology books: https://cardiologybooks.com
• Mentorship with the Academy of Elite Doctors: https://academyofelitedoctors.com
• Online cardiology courses: https://cardiologycourse.com
• World Elite Doctors: https://worldelitedoctors.com

For medical education only. This episode is not a substitute for individual medical advice.