The 37 chapters in Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Cardiology cover the major disease entities and therapeutic challenges in cardiology. Also, there are chapters on major management issues in cardiology, such as pregnancy and heart disease, the use of anticoagulants in heart disease, and the perioperative evaluation of heart disease patients. Each section is written by experts in the particular area, but has been extensively edited to ensure a consistent approach throughout the book and the kind of readability found in single-author texts. It is organized into six sections: Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Ischemic Heart Disease, Arrhythmias, Valvular Disease, Cardiomyopathy & Heart Failure, and Systemic Diseases & the Heart. Since the fourth edition, new content has been added on new hypertension guidelines, new therapies for dyslipidemia management, new oral anticoagulants, and new antiplatelet and antithrombotic drugs. In addition, the Cardiomyopathy & Heart Failure section has new material on stress cardiomyopathy, toxic cardiomyopathies, and ventricular assist devices and extracorporeal membrane oxygenators for heart failure and shock. Finally, the discussion of percutaneously delivered heart valves and other devices for structural heart disease has been expanded.
My hope is that the book is found to be useful and improves patient care. Also, I hope it is an educational tool that improves knowledge of cardiac diseases. Finally, I hope it stimulates clinical research in areas where our knowledge is incomplete.