Primary Care Provider's Guide to Cardiology

Richard S. Rees

doi:10.7326/0003-4819-133-12-200012190-00026

Primary Care Provider's Guide to Cardiology Free

Richard S. Rees, MD

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Levine GN, Mann DL, eds. 224 pages. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2000. $24.95. ISBN 068330688X. Order phone 800-638-0672.

Field of medicine: Clinical cardiology.

Format: Softcover book.

Audience: Primary care physicians.

Purpose: To provide simple, evidence-based practice information and guidelines on most of the common cardiac conditions seen in routine clinical practice.

Content: The book covers most major clinical cardiovascular problems, including congestive heart failure, stable and unstable angina, myocardial infarction, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Chapters focus on syncope, atrial fibrillation, valvular disease, management of the pregnant patient with heart disease, and care of patients with pacemakers. Discussion of each problem is organized into sections on diagnosis and treatment. Answers to commonly encountered questions, such as when to refer patients with coronary disease or angina for cardiac catheterization and when to refer patients with valvular disease for cardiologic evaluation and surgery, are provided.

Highlights: The text is concise—each chapter can be read in 5 to 10 minutes—and very readable. The information presented is focused and useful. The authors seem to anticipate questions that are particularly relevant to the primary care physician. Major aspects of diagnostic work-up and treatment are presented in tables and simple paradigms that are easy to refer to and remember. Clinical pearls are distributed throughout each chapter.

Limitations: For the sake of brevity, some information is oversimplified, giving the impression that only one approach exists to a particular problem. This is especially true in the chapters on congestive heart failure and valvular disease. Several important topics, such as cardiomyopathies, cor pulmonale, arrhythmias, and congenital heart disease in adults, are omitted. The chapter on pacemakers lacks basic discussion of the available types of pacemakers and pacing options as well as the indications for their use.

Related reading: Several recent books, such as Hess and colleagues' Heart Disease in Primary Care (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1998) and Taylor and colleagues' Primary Care Management of Heart Disease (Mosby, 2000), cover primary care cardiology. These and other primary care–oriented texts offer more thorough discussion of management and include information on other aspects of disease, such as epidemiology and pathophysiology.

Reviewer: Richard S. Rees, MD, Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System, New York, New York.

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Medical Writings |19 December 2000

Primary Care Provider's Guide to Cardiology Free

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