108 articles
Cardiovascular Diagnostic Techniques
Cardiovascular diagnostic techniques (cardiac diagnostic tests): ECG, echocardiography, cardiac CT/MRI, nuclear imaging, stress testing, and catheterization used to diagnose heart and vessel disease, from Einthoven's 1902 electrocardiograph to CCTA and AI-based analysis.
Carotid stenting
Carotid artery stenting (CAS), an endovascular alternative to carotid endarterectomy introduced in 1994, places a self-expanding stent in a narrowed carotid artery; CREST showed similar 4-year outcomes with more stroke after CAS and more MI after CEA.
Central venous catheter
Central venous catheter (CVC): flexible tube with tip in the superior vena cava for fluids, drugs, chemotherapy, dialysis, and monitoring. Types include non-tunneled lines, PICCs, Hickman/Broviac, and implanted ports; up to 27 million inserted yearly worldwide.
Cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Cine MRI (cine CMR, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine) is a cardiac MRI technique using ECG-gated bSSFP sequences to display heart motion as a movie loop and quantify ventricular volumes and ejection fraction, the reference standard for LV systolic function.
Computed tomography angiography
Computed tomography angiography (CTA, CT angiogram): imaging of blood vessels using iodinated contrast injection and CT scanning; introduced with helical CT in 1991; coronary CTA sensitivity 0.94, specificity 0.73; doses now submillisievert.
Coronary artery bypass surgery
Coronary artery bypass surgery, or CABG, is open-heart surgery grafting a vessel to bypass blocked coronary arteries. Pioneered by Carrel, Kolessov, and Favaloro (1967), it remains the most common cardiac operation, with better long-term survival than PCI in multivessel disease.
Coronary catheterization
Coronary catheterization (cardiac catheterization with coronary angiography) threads catheters from the radial or femoral artery to the heart to image coronary blockages and enable PCI; major complication rate 1.70%, radial access now preferred in ACS.
Coronary endarterectomy
Coronary endarterectomy (CE) is direct removal of atherosclerotic plaque from a coronary artery, first reported in a patient by Bailey in 1957. Used as an adjunct to CABG for diffuse coronary disease; higher short-term risk, lower graft patency, comparable long-term survival.
CT pulmonary angiogram
CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA, CT pulmonary angiography): contrast-enhanced CT timed to the pulmonary arteries, the standard test to diagnose acute pulmonary embolism; PIOPED II sensitivity 83%, specificity 96%, preferred over V/Q scanning.
CTO-PCI study
CTO-PCI study: percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total coronary occlusions (blockages of at least 3 months), and the J-CTO, PROGRESS-CTO, CL, and CASTLE scoring systems predicting procedural success and wire-crossing difficulty.
Da Costa's syndrome
Da Costa's syndrome, or irritable heart, soldier's heart, effort syndrome, or neurocirculatory asthenia, is a functional cardiac disorder with effort intolerance, palpitations, and breathlessness described by Jacob Mendes Da Costa in 1871.
Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest
Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) is a cardiac and aortic surgery technique cooling the body to 15–25 °C to stop circulation safely; pioneered by Bigelow, Drew, and Griepp, now often replaced by moderate hypothermia with antegrade cerebral perfusion.
Digital subtraction angiography
Digital subtraction angiography (DSA): fluoroscopic X-ray technique subtracting a pre-contrast mask image from contrast-filled frames to show vessels; gold standard in neurovascular imaging since 1980.
Doppler echocardiography
Doppler echocardiography measures cardiac blood-flow velocities via the Doppler effect to estimate valve gradients and pulmonary pressures noninvasively; modes include continuous-wave, pulsed-wave, color-flow, and tissue Doppler, validated against right heart catheterization.
Drug-eluting stent
Drug-eluting stent (DES): coronary stent coated with sirolimus, paclitaxel, everolimus, or similar drugs released to prevent restenosis after angioplasty; first implanted 1999, reduces repeat revascularization versus bare-metal stents but requires dual antiplatelet therapy.
Echocardiography
Echocardiography, also known as cardiac ultrasound, is a non-invasive test using ultrasound waves to image the heart, developed by Inge Edler and Carl Hertz in Sweden in 1953.
Embolization
Embolization (embolotherapy): minimally invasive transcatheter occlusion of blood vessels using particles, liquids, coils, or gels to stop bleeding, starve tumors, or treat AVMs and aneurysms.
Endogenous cardiac stem cell
Endogenous cardiac stem cells (CSCs), heart-resident progenitors marked by c-Kit, Sca-1, Isl-1, once proposed for cardiomyocyte regeneration; lineage tracing showed negligible myogenic capacity, refuting the concept.
Exercise intolerance
Exercise intolerance is a reduced ability to perform physical activity, limited by dyspnea, fatigue, or leg discomfort. Causes include heart failure (about 50% of the 6 million U.S. patients), COPD, anemia, and Long COVID; CPET is the gold-standard assessment.
FLOW-DCB trial
FLOW-DCB (NCT07852689) is a planned Korean multicenter randomized noninferiority trial comparing drug-coated balloon-based versus drug-eluting stent-only PCI in 100 adults with de novo coronary lesions, with distal FFR at 6 months as the primary outcome.
Fluid Therapy
Fluid therapy is a medical treatment that restores the volume and composition of body fluids to normal water-electrolyte balance, given intravenously, orally, by gavage, or under the skin.
Fontan procedure
Fontan procedure: final palliative operation for single-ventricle congenital heart disease, connecting systemic venous return directly to the pulmonary arteries; staged after Norwood and Glenn, with venous hypertension and late liver, lymphatic, and thrombotic complications.
HARP (algorithm)
HARP (harmonic phase) MRI algorithm, by Osman and Prince, Johns Hopkins, 1999: rapid analysis of SPAMM-tagged cardiac MR images using invariant harmonic phase to track myocardial motion and strain; basis of Diagnosoft HARP software.
Heart murmur
Heart murmur: an extra heart sound from turbulent blood flow, heard on auscultation. Innocent murmurs are common in children; abnormal ones signal valve disease, confirmed by echocardiography.
Heart nanotechnology
Heart nanotechnology applies 1–100 nm materials to cardiac drug delivery, imaging, biosensors, gene therapy, and tissue engineering; also called cardiovascular nanomedicine, it remains mostly preclinical, with about 1% of the nanodrug market versus 20% for cancer.
Heart sounds
Heart sounds are transient noises from valve closure heard during auscultation. The first two sounds, S1 and S2, are normal, while S3 and S4 are usually abnormal.
Heart transplantation
Heart transplantation: surgical replacement of a failing heart with a donor heart. First done by Barnard in 1967; 1-year survival now near 90%; main risks are rejection, vasculopathy, and immunosuppression side effects.
Hickman line
Hickman line, also called Hickman catheter, a tunneled silicone central venous catheter with a Dacron cuff, invented by Robert Hickman in 1979 by enlarging the Broviac catheter for bone marrow transplantation; used for chemotherapy, parenteral nutrition, and blood sampling.
Home Parenteral Nutrition
Home total parenteral nutrition (HPN) delivers complete intravenous nutrition at home via a central catheter for chronic intestinal failure. Pioneered in the late 1960s by Scribner, Shils, and Dudrick; about 32,000 US users annually; survival depends on underlying disease.
Hybrid coronary revascularization
Hybrid coronary revascularization (HCR) combines minimally invasive LIMA-LAD bypass grafting with PCI for non-LAD lesions in multivessel coronary disease; introduced in the mid-1990s, it lowers perioperative morbidity versus CABG but raises repeat revascularization.