cardiology

A left ventricular (LV) pseudoaneurysm is an LV outpouching devoid of myocardium/endocardium contained by the pericardium and adhesions. As one can imagine, this pathology carries a high risk of rupture and mortality. LV pseudoaneurysms...

Iodixanol (Visipaque) is an iodinated intravenous (IV) contrast agent which is iso-osmolar with plasma. Unlike the non-ionic monomer iohexol (Omnipaque), Visipaque is a non-ionic dimer; however, both agents are routinely utilized for angiography, venography,...

As a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist and intensivist, many of my patients receive ventricular pacing at some point during their hospital admission. In the OR, many patients have epicardial right ventricular (RV) pacing implanted following cardiac...

The "anatomical heart" was approved with Unicode 13.0 in 2020 and added to Emoji 13.0 the same year. Its appearance varies based on the platform (Apple, Google, Samsung, Facebook, etc), but below, I've labeled...

S1-Q3-T3 refers to an EKG pattern first described in the 1930s suggestive of cor pulmonale in a case series of patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). This pattern has the following findings: Prominent S wave in...

In order for the heart muscle to actually contract, the physiological process of excitation-contraction coupling must occur via an action potential propagated through the myocardium. Normally, these muscle cells have a resting transmembrane potential...

The mitral valve's complex geometry is usually described as a "saddle shape", but I definitely prefer the comparison to Pringles chips! Here's an illustration showing the relevant mitral anatomy. No Pringles were harmed in...

Early in my training as a medical student and intern, it seemed that all people ever cared about on an echo report was the "EF!" This refers to the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)...