The Art and Science of Cardiac Physical Examination

A panel of academic clinicians brings the art and science of the clinical cardiac examination to the bedside with a tour de force tutorial on the techniques needed to elicit various physical signs and to interpret them in relation to the patient's symptoms and underlying cardiac condition. Drawing on twenty-five years of teaching and training physicians and physicians-to-be, the authors integrate the physiology, pathophysiology, and mechanisms behind the various physical signs with a thorough and easy-to-use practical approach that makes physician feel more comfortable and competent performing the cardiac physical examination. The authors pay particular attention to the interpretation of the jugular venous pulsations and contour and make the physiology and pathophysiology of the normal and abnormal arterial pulse interesting and relevant. A unique and original companion video CD presents close to 140 clinical examples taken from actual patients, complete with audio recordings of various heart sounds and murmurs displayed in real time as seen on an oscilloscope. Additional video recordings show both precordial pulsations and jugular pulsations from patients with a variety of cardiac lesions, and illustrate certain unusual clinical conditions through simultaneous echocardiographic images and recordings of heart sounds and murmurs. Despite the fact that more than half the patients seeking care from an internal medicine specialist or a family physician will have either a primary or secondary cardiac problem, the teaching of cardiac auscultation, the physical examination of the heart, has been deteriorating since the advent of such modern diagnostic tools as 2D echocardiology and nuclear imaging. In The Art and Science of Cardiac Physical Examination: With Heart Sounds and Pulse Wave Forms on CD, veteran academic clinicians bring the art and science of cardiac physical examination to the bedside with a tour de force tutorial on techniques needed to elicit various