25th Annual Cardiologists Conference September 17-18,2018 Hong Kong

Clinical cardiology is the branch of internal medicine that deals with malfunctions and disorders related to heart in humans and animals. The field includes diagnosis and treatment of heart failure, congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology. It is manly dependent on the circulatory system or circulatory process also called the cardiovascular system. In circulation process, Blood carries oxygen and nutrients from your heart to the rest of the body through a complex network of arteries, arterioles, and capillaries whereas the deoxygenated blood is carried back to your heart through venules and veins. The physicians who are specialized in this field are called cardiologists. The Cardiothoracic surgeons or Cardiac surgeons are the ones who are specialized in cardiology from general surgery.  Clinical Cardiology plays a major role in coordination of research in medical diagnosis, cardiovascular medicine and cardiovascular surgery.

Heart diseases are also called as cardiovascular diseases which in turn include the conditions that affect the mechanism, function or structure of heart. Heart diseases are may be classified into congenital and acquired heart diseases. Most of the cases, it is considered to be an acquired heart diseases. Common cardiovascular diseases are called coronary artery diseases such as angina and myocardial infarction.

Studies have been revealed that every 1 out of 3 women in U.S are exposed to a heart disease that is approximately 1 woman per minute. It is also stated that women with diabetes have higher CVD mortality rates than men with diabetes. Women who are all taking g physical activity for less than 2 hours are considered to have more risk for coronary artery disease. Coronary microvascular disease (MVD) and broken heart syndrome are the two heart diseases that affect women more than men. Wherein, MVD is caused due to tiny arteries and Broken Heart syndrome is caused due to emotional stress leading muscle failure. Go Red for Women is a major international awareness campaign dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and control of heart disease and stroke in women.

Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure is a long term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is frequently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms.  Long term high blood pressure is a main risk factor for coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, vision loss, and chronic kidney disease. It is classified into primary high blood pressure or secondary high blood pressure. Due to nonspecific lifestyle and genetic factors about 90–95% of cases are primary hypertension. Lifestyle factors that increase the risk constitute excess salt, excess body weight, smoking, and alcohol. The rest 5–10% cases are due to secondary hypertension, which constitutes chronic kidney disease, narrowing of the kidney arteries, a hormone-related disorder, or the use of birth control pills. Blood pressure is calculated by two measurements, the systolic and diastolic blood pressures, these are the maximum and minimum pressures, respectively. At rest, normal blood pressure is within the range of 100–140 mm of mercury (mmHg) during systole and 60–90 mmHg diastoles.

Echocardiography is referred to as cardiac echo produced by the ultrasound waves which in turn create the images of the heart. This is a type of ultrasound test that uses high-pitched sound waves that are sent through a device called a transducer. The device receives the echoes of the sound waves as they bound with the different parts of your heart. These echoes tend to create moving pictures of your heart that can be seen on a video screen. It helps to detect cardiomyopathies, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, and many others.

Diabetes Heart Disease (DHD) is defined as the heart disease which occurs in individuals who are having high level of carbohydrates in blood (Diabetes).It has been observed that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality for people with diabetes. People with diabetes are tending to have hypertension, abnormal blood lipids and obesity which are all considered as risk factors for cardiovascular disease. For the past two decades several advances in treating heart disease have improved the chances of surviving a heart attack or stroke. However, the incidence of diabetes steadily increases are proportional to the number of new cases of heart disease and cardiovascular complications.

Cardio oncology is defined as the interdisciplinary field of medicine in which the clinical alterations of cardiovascular system are studied during the different methods of treatments of cancer. It aids in studying the heart conditions in patients who have been treated for cancer. The ultimate aim of Cardio oncology is to find a balance between oncologic efficacy and reducing adverse cardiovascular effects. Age, obesity, use of tobacco, intake of certain types of cancer drugs or radiation treatment to the chest is considered as the risk factors by cardiologists. Other reasons may be the consequences of radio- and chemo-therapy in long-term survivors of malignancy. All patients who are being considered for chemotherapy, especially those who have prior history of cardiac disease should undergo detailed cardiovascular evaluation to optimize the treatment. Serial examination of left ventricular systolic function and cardiac biomarkers might also be considered in the selected populations of patient. Malignancy can also occur during long-term follow-up after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). Cardio-oncology studies helps oncologists in early treatment by closely watching the heart of their patients to protect them.

Pediatric cardiology  is the  branch of cardiology which involves in the treatment of childhood disorder includes both the heart and lungs problems. A person who had received extensive training in diagnosing the pediatric cardiopulmonary disease are called pediatric cardiologist. Pediatric cardiology aims in preventing both the congenital and acquired human heart diseases in children, infants and adolescents. It offers a new platform to educate the next generation physician in pediatric cardiology. Cardiac catheterization technique is also involved in pediatric cardiology.

Geriatric Cardiology means cardiovascular care of patients 65 years of age or older. The geriatric population is further broken down into elderly (between ages 75 and 84 years) and very elderly (85 years of age or older), with numbers reaching 40 million and 13 million people, respectively. Vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and peripheral arterial disease cause significant morbidity and mortality in aged people.

Interventional cardiology –is the branch of cardiology that handles with the specific Cather based techniques to various structural heart diseases, non-surgical procedures for treating cardiovascular diseases. Often, to avoid the need for surgery a thin, flexible tube called catheter is used to repair damaged vessels or other heart structures diseases. In addition, for an acute myocardial infarction the procedure involved in interventional cardiology for acts as a best standard of care. It involves in elimination of clots from coronary arteries and implementation of stents and balloons through a small hole made in a major artery. Coronary intervention will remain the dominant procedure for the interventional cardiologist, which leads to the development of new procedures in coming decade in proportional to the population growth. It is expected that interventional cardiology craves a new attention in the growth of valvular heart disease intervention. 

Nuclear cardiology “Non-invasive diagnosing studies involved in cardiology to analyze myocardial blood flow, to determine the pumping mechanism of the heart and to visualize the size and location of heart after the consequences of heart attack or any heart diseases”. Different Imaging techniques are used in nuclear cardiology to perform the assessment in a heart patient. Among those, the myocardial perfusion imaging is the commonly used one.

Sports Cardiologyachieves heart screenings that detect potentially serious cardiovascular issues in young athletes. Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the major reason of death in exercising young athletes, and is most commonly set off by problems as structural heart disorders or electrical circuitry issues which are not commonly found during routine physical examinations. Most of the conditions that cause sudden cardiac death in young athletes are evaluated by an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), a non-invasive test which calculates the electrical activity of the heart. 

Cardiovascular surgery is also known as  thoracic surgery which is operated on the heart or great vessels by cardiac surgeons and it  is the field of medicine involved in surgical treatment of organs inside the thorax. There are five types of cardiac surgery 1) Open heart surgery 2) Modern beating-heart surgery 3) Heart transplant 4) Coronary artery bypass grafting 5) Minimally invasive surgery and  surgeries are done to treat complexity of ischemic heart disease, correct congenital heart disease, or treat valvular heart disease from various causes including endocarditis, rheumatic heart disease and atherosclerosis and  advancement of cardiac surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass techniques has greatly reduced the mortality rates of these procedures. The surgery requires postoperative care to avoid complications. Laceration care is needed to avoid infection and minimize scarring. Swelling and loss of appetite are common, as mentioned Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is the most common type of heart surgery. CABG improves blood flow to the heart. 

Cardiac nursing is a nursing specialty that works with patients who suffer from various conditions of the cardiovascular system. Cardiac nurses help treat conditions such as unstable angina, cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction and cardiac dysrhythmia under the direction of a cardiologist. Cardiac nurses perform postoperative care on a surgical unit, stress test evaluations, cardiac monitoring, vascular monitoring, and health assessments. Cardiac nurses work in many different environments, including coronary care units (CCU), cardiac catheterization, intensive care units (ICU), operating theatres, cardiac rehabilitation centers, clinical research, cardiac surgery wards, cardiovascular intensive care units (CVICU), and cardiac medical wards.

Cardiac Regeneration:  “repairing the Cardiac Cells, tissues and its function which is damaged by the heart disease is known as cardiac regeneration. Reparative stem cells have the capability to restore function to damaged tissue by renewing cell growth in cardiac cells. A decade ago Stem cell based therapies as considered as the clinical trials for cardiac regeneration. Now, bone marrow derived stem cells (BMCs), adult stem cells from adipose or cardiac tissue are used in current clinical studies with inconsistent results but the outcomes in terms of feasibility and safety are encouraging in cardiac regeneration. In future, myocardial regeneration, transplantation of stem or progenitor cells, stimulation of endogenous cardiac repair by pharmacological agents and Tissue engineering will play a major role in cardiac regeneration.

A case report on Cardiology gives an appropriate convention for all cardiologists by rendering their important clinical cases of late occurrence. Studying from medical cases provides valuable experience for clinicians, students and paramedical staff -members. Rare medical reports and conditions discovered through the latest methods of examination are energized. Moreover, studying diagnostic methods from medical cases and the interpretation of symptoms is significant to train and burgeon the thought processes which are being used in the clinical field.