Sunday, September 13, 2009

Braunwalds - Heart Disease - A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine - 8th Edition

Braunwalds - Heart Disease - A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine - 8th edition
8th Edition
Compiled HTML Help file Original Copy 171 MB

The currents of contemporary cardiovascular disease run swiftly, broadly, and deeply. The Eighth Edition of Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, presented here, serves as the hub of a learning system designed to help physicians and students at all levels, from trainees to highly specialized practitioners, confront the challenge of staying abreast of this rapidly evolving field.

Intending Heart Disease to constitute the “core curriculum,” an up-to-date, comprehensive, and authoritative ready reference for all practitioners. Stroving to make this Eighth Edition an information source of practical clinical utility, grounded in the rapidly expanding evidence base that informs the practice. As in the previous editions of Heart Disease, the scientific underpinnings presented that govern cardiovascular pathophysiology and provide a rational basis for understanding therapeutics and management of cardiovascular diseases encountered in clinical practice.

Since the preparation of the last edition of Heart Disease much has changed, a reflection of the rapid pace of progress in our specialty. The results of manifold new clinical trials have become available in ways that in many cases profoundly affect our management strategies and practice. Novel therapeutics, both pharmacological and device-based, provide new management options. In the last few years we have not only witnessed striking advances in therapeutics but encountered challenges in the application of drug therapies and cardiovascular devices ranging from drug-eluting stents to implantable devices. The constant change and complexities in therapeutics and management strategies render obsolete textbooks published only a few years ago.

Other rapid shifts are under way in the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. In recent years cardiovascular specialists could congratulate themselves that the epidemic of cardiovascular disease had declined, based on the progress in our specialty. Current demographic trends suggest, however, that the scourge of cardiovascular disease, rather than waning, may indeed be increasing in the years to come. The aging of the population will increase the overall burden of cardiovascular disease in society, even as age-adjusted rates of cardiovascular mortality plateau or decline. We also need to confront a renewed upswing of cardiovascular risk linked to the worldwide epidemic of obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes rooted in over-nutrition and declining physical activity. This gathering of cardiovascular risk increasingly threatens to extend the burden of cardiovascular disease to developing as well as Western societies. Thus, we cannot presume that the toll of cardiovascular disease will continue to ebb, highlighting the urgency of tools such as the Heart Disease Learning System that aim to help the clinician remain abreast of the constantly changing landscape of cardiovascular disease.

This revised new edition to reflect these multiple changes. Thirty of eighty-nine chapters are entirely new. Thus, more than one third of the Eighth Edition represents completely new material. There are 43 new authors, comparing the Eighth to the Seventh Edition of Heart Disease. All of the chapters carried over from the Seventh Edition have undergone extensive revision to update them and heighten their utility. A full description of the changes introduced in this Eighth Edition exceeds the scope of this Preface. Among the major changes, Douglas L. Mann, MD, has joined the editorial team and overseen a recasting of the entire section devoted to heart failure and chapters relating to myocardial disease. As heart failure represents the leading cause of admissions of patients covered by Medicare to hospitals, and comprises an ever-increasing fraction of our patient population given the success of acute interventions, the fresh approach to this important topic should be welcome to readers. In particular, new chapters focus on acute heart failure and heart failure with preserved systolic function, two timely and challenging issues in clinical practice.

Given the growing potential of genetics and expanding knowledge of cardiovascular genetics, Christine E. Seidman, MD, and Jonathan G. Seidman, PhD, have joined the author list of Heart Disease and provide a thorough revision with Reed E. Pyeritz, MD, PhD, of the chapter on cardiovascular genetics and an entirely new chapter on the genetics of myocardial disease, complemented by online supplements. A new chapter on evidence-based physical examination has replaced the traditional recitation and cataloguing of signs and symptoms of cardiovascular disease. We are grateful to James C. Fang, MD, and Patrick T. O'Gara, MD, for taking on the assignment of preparing this entirely new approach to the foundation of clinical evaluation, the physical examination. Heidi M. Connolly, MD, and Jae K. Oh, MD, have prepared a new chapter on echocardiography that provides in-depth discussion of the current state-of-the-art applications of this versatile imaging modality for virtually all forms of cardiac disease. A new chapter on stroke by Larry B. Goldstein, MD, highlights what a cardiovascular practitioner needs to know about prevention and treatment of stroke and illustrates the extra-cardiac extensions of contemporary cardiology practice. A new chapter on sleep disorders likewise acknowledges the importance of an integrated multi-system approach to the management of our patients with cardiovascular disease. A new chapter on complementary and alternative approaches to cardiovascular disease reflects the growing interest in this area in patients and doctors alike. For similar reasons, we have added a new chapter on sports cardiology.

Intending the growing family of Heart Disease companion volumes to address the breadth and depth of cardiovascular medicine. Several companions are currently in print, many published or revised in the last few years. Other companions in production or the planning stages include topics such as arrhythmology and lipidology, and mechanical circulatory support will emerge in the coming years. Noteworthy additions to the family of Heart Disease companions include a new volume on hypertension edited by Henry R. Black, MD, and William J. Elliott, MD, PhD; an entirely revised and updated version of Cardiovascular Therapeutics edited by Elliott M. Antman, MD; a comprehensive volume on vascular medicine edited by Mark A. Creager, MD, Victor J. Dzau, MD, and Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD; and a volume on cardiac nursing edited by Debra K. Moser, DNSc, RN, and Barbara Riegel, DNSc, RN. Readers of Heart Disease who wish to deepen their knowledge of specific areas can turn to the companion volumes as a convenient source, bearing the hallmark of clinical utility with a clinical evidence foundation and scientific basis common to the Heart Disease mission. The companions are intended to complement the core curriculum of this Heart Disease volume. In response to the growing importance of imaging in cardiovascular practice, atlases of the emerging and established imaging technologies are currently in preparation under editorial direction of Robert O. Bonow, MD. Finally, a new edition of the Heart Disease Review and Assessment book is under way, to help trainees prepare for the certification examinations in the specialty of cardiovascular diseases.

These various key components of the Heart Disease Learning System, assembled in a personalized way to meet the needs of each practitioner, should help one navigate the rapidly flowing stream of cardiovascular knowledge hoping that the readers will find Heart Disease and its associated learning tools useful in their quest to stay abreast of this ever-evolving field.

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