43-year-old female with history of continued cigarette smoking and complaints of palpitations. A sinus tachycardia of 160 is documented with little physical activity. Pulmonary function studies revealed obstructive ventilatory defects, consistent with the smoking or beta blockers. She has been documented to have moderate mitral regurgitation, consistent with prior rheumatic disease. At the present time, she is on Inderal.
51-year-old female with vitamin D deficiency among other medical problems: high blood pressure, episodes of transient syncope, and sleep apnea. In the expert's opinion frequent changes and discontinuations of drugs as well as big intervals between one dose to another, can be responsible for hypertensive crisis. Therefore the expert recommends to stop too frequent investigations , and instead focus on appropriate treatment, that should be combination of Angiotensin Receptor Blocker and diuretics.
72-year-old male had a TIA in 1995 and has been in chronic atrial fibrillation since 1992. In 2005 2 ablative procedures were ineffective. The main treatment strategy for his atrial fibrillation has consisted of rate control and oral anticoagulation. Despite several attempts of different medications (digoxin, beta-blockers) he has remained in atrial fibrillation with a relatively moderate to fast ventricular response.
72-year-old male with a diagnosis of mitral valve prolapse and chronic severe mitral regurgitation, aortic root and ascending aorta dilatation and patent foramen ovale. On 06/2008 he had dissection of the descending aorta. The clinical course has been characterized by hemodynamic stability and the vascular surgeon decided on conservative treatment and follow–up by thoracic CT.
A known hypertensive female patient whose blood pressure is mostly uncontrolled. The expert recommends to focus on appropriate treatment which should include fixed combination of Angiotensin Receptor Blocker and diuretics together with 24 hour blood pressure monitoring. The expert emphasize that frequent changes, discontinuations of drugs or big intervals between one dose to another can be responsible for hypertensive crisis.
A very physically active 49-year-old male with a history of labile hypertension and hypercholesterolemia with an LDL cholesterol of 126 mg%. He underwent an exercise stress test which revealed reversible inferoseptal ischemia at a peak heart rate of 171 bpm and peak blood pressure of 195/85. In the expert's opinion, the results suggest that the patient has silent myocardial ischemia and may be at risk for sudden cardiac death, especially in light of the marked exertional level of activity.
49-year-old-male complained of a feeling of oppression behind the sternum, always when there was emotional stress. His coronary CT showed Severe high level stenosis with wall irregularities of the right coronary artery. The treatment options are coronary revascularization procedure versus optimized pharmacologic management.
