Calcific aortic valve stenosis causes the left ventricle (LV) to adapt to chronic pressure overload over time. Classically, this involves left ventricular hypertrophy resulting in diastolic dysfunction.
After a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), the...
The left ventricle’s (LV) variously arranged muscle fibers twist and contract during systole, storing potential energy as blood is ejected (imagine wringing water out of a towel). This stored energy is released in diastole:...
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a broad topic encompassing primary and secondary etiologies. Similar to systemic hypertension, PH refers to elevated pressures in the pulmonary vessels. It’s essential to understand how PH is classified and...
As a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist and intensivist, I routinely place large central lines for resuscitation, vasoactive/inotrope administration, and to facilitate additional monitoring (ie, Swan Ganz catheter). Over the years, I've heard "MAC", "sheath introducer", "Cordis",...
Synthetic human angiotensin II (Giapreza) is an intravenous vasopressor approved in late 2017 for septic or other distributive shock states. Normally, renin is released by the kidneys in response to decreased perfusion pressure in...
In this video, I go over how I approach hypotension/hypertension considering the factors that contribute to mean arterial pressure. Often times, many of these variables affect overall forward flow, so it's important to have...
In pursuit of evidence-based rationales for my hatred of dopamine, I turned to PubMed and queried the database for "dopamine shock" filtered for meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, and systematic reviews in adult patients since...
Central venous pressure (CVP) or right atrial pressure (RAP) waveform tracings can often times provide useful insight about a patient’s right ventricle (RV), tricuspid valve (TV), and overall cardiopulmonary status. The waveform morphology is...