Editors: Cheuk-Man Yu, MD, David L. Hayes, MD, and Angelo Auricchio, MD
Publisher: Elsevier Saunders – 327 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani

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Material for this book was contributed by 87 specialists in various related fields in 12 countries, besides the United States, namely: Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom,

About 300,000 people die from heart failure in a year, from among about half million cases brought to the attention of doctors. Some of these cases are of the type belonging to the two bullet points below.

The editors of this book point out that cardiac resynchronization therapy has become a “cornerstone” for the treatment of patients with:

  • Congestive heart failure
  • Conduction system disease

They state that it is an important and evolving therapy that demands knowledge of: cardiac imaging, device management, heart failure management, and hemodynamics.

The material in this book consists of actual cases organized around 9 sections:

  • Current Indications
  • Expanding Indications of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy
  • Challenging Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Implantation
  • New Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Implantation Techniques
  • Optimization of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Device
  • Management of Complications of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy
  • Non-responders to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy
  • Device-Based Diagnostics for Heart Failure Monitoring and Remote Monitoring

In this book, the cases of 49 patients are presented and discussed. For each case, the following basic items of information about the patient are presented to you for reading, analysis, comparison and evaluation: age, gender, occupation, and working diagnosis. Each case is first classified based on which section (among the sections above) it belongs to. Then it is discussed in that section, with the following points:

  • History
  • Physical Examination
  • Laboratory Data
  • Postoperative Echocardiogram
  • Follow-Up
  • Focused Clinical Questions and Discussion Points
  • Final Diagnosis
  • Plan of Action
  • Intervention
  • Outcome, in which findings are presented, and instructive comments are written.

This approach to presenting and discussing information is very smart on the part of the editors of the book (named below) and can be very helpful to you in gaining clinical knowledge and making decisions on treatment options. A list of references is presented to you at the end of discussion of each case.

Cheuk-Man Yu, MD, FRCP (London/Edin), FRACP, FHKAM (Medicine), FHKCP, FACC, MBChB is affiliated with the Division of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics at Prince Wales Hospital; and with The Chinese University of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong SAR.

David L. Hayes, MD, FACC, FHRS is Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota.

Angelo Auricchio, MD, PhD is Director of the Clinical Electrophysiology Unit at Fondiazone Cardiocentro Ticino in Lugano, Switzerland; and is Professor of Cardiology at the University of Magdeburg in Magdeburg, Germany.