Questions tagged [cardiology]
the branch of medicine that deals with diseases and abnormalities of the heart.
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Does the heart become stronger or weaker after an intensive workout?
I perform 12 push-up series with 1 minute and 15 seconds break between them each day.
After this session i feel my heart pounding like crazy for ~5 minutes. Even hours after, i feel the heart beating ...
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What are pros and cons of different approaches to aborting ventricular tachycardia?
Idiopathic (or spontaneous, unknown origin) ventricular tachycardia is a type of ventricular tachycardia (VT) that occurs in patients with structurally normal hearts. I would like to know what the ...
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What do blood pressure readings indicate?
I have heard 120 by 80 is considered normal blood pressure.
What do these numbers indicate?
I am not a science student. Please explain in non-complicated language.
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Is it normal to feel your heart beat in your chest?
Is it normal for a person to at times feel their heart beat in their chest without actually placing their hand on their chest, while at other times not be able to (even though the pulse is strong, ...
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Can stress increase blood pressure?
Whenever I get my blood pressure checked, whether by machine or person, I become extremely stressed. My heart rate then increases quite a bit into the hundreds, usually around 110-120 (my normal is 55-...
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Clot-busting drugs versus balloon angioplasty for heart attack patients reaching early in hospital
Which is better: thrombolysis (treatment with clot busting medication) or primary angioplasty (an invasive procedure for mechanical opening of the blocked artery)? Does it matter if the patient ...
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How much difference should there be between systolic and diastolic pressure?
How much of a difference should there normally be, between systolic and diastolic pressures? What could cause them to be too far apart, or too close together? What other symptoms could such deviation ...
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Benefit of closing atrial septal defect in adults
Atrial septal defect is the most common type of hole in the heart encountered in adults. In many cases, the patients do not have any symptoms or difficulties. Are there any studies to show that there ...
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What is the effect of energy drinks on the heart?
I was watching a Youtube video of a man who supposedly drank 20 energy drinks in a row. It appears that his heart enlarged greatly. Is this something that energy drinks could actually do?
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What does "sinus rhythm otherwise normal ECG" mean?
I just recently made an ECG to be able to participate in a study and I am curious what "sinus rhythm otherwise normal ECG" means. Is my sinus rhythm out of order? A doctor will be checking my ECG and ...
user2880
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Blood pressure in aorta vs. blood pressure in brachial artery
Second year medical student asking.
Does the blood pressure at the root of aorta equal the blood pressure in the brachial artery?
I've heard it does but it doesn't quite seem to make sense as I'd ...
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Can sleeping too much damage the brain and heart?
I heard that sleeping long hours can damage brain functions and harm the heart. Is that true?
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What is the difference between Eisenmenger syndrome and ventricular septal defect?
What is the difference between Eisenmenger syndrome and ventricular septal defect?
They are both related to a hole between the two ventricles, right?
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Why do we continue compressions after the first AED shock?
I just took a CPR course and was instructed to perform 5 cycles of compressions after an AED shock (after which you wait for the AED to do another analysis). My question is: if the shock was ...
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Is having a congenitally fused heart valve a hereditary condition?
A person (close to me genetically) recently had a surgery to replace an aortic heart valve that the surgeon called "the ugliest valve he'd seen in a long time". Two of the leaflets were fused ...
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Can Manual External Defibrillators "restart" a heart?
On TV it appears that every time a heartbeat monitor flat-lines they pull out the paddles of a manual external defibrillator (MED) and give a few shocks, often explicitly cranking up the output when ...
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Pacemaker and MRI
Is it safe for patients with pacemakers to have MRI? Although earlier it used to be said that patients with pacemakers should not have MRI, but apparently some recent data says it is not that ...
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Mechanical cardio resuscitation for asystole
We have great machines for shocking a heart out of various malfunctions.
But my understanding is that the only "machine" indicated for restarting a heart that has completely stopped (i.e., "flat-...
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Medical puzzle: can blood flow in arteries be non-pulsatile?
Recently there have been questions on blood pressure and pulse pressure on this forum. Can the blood flow in arteries of a living human be non-pulsatile (i.e. not producing a pulse)? That is, the flow ...
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Can a sunburn increase your resting heart rate?
I've been using a Fitbit to track my resting heartrate (among other things). The value has consistently been in the 55-60 range for several weeks (most typical value over the past week or two is 57). ...
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What would happen if you administered endothelin during a myocardial infarction?
I have been going through the Rhodes medical physiology and have learned about Endothelin (specifically its role in hyperplasia) and collateral vessels in slowly developed [cardiovascular disease] (...
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How likely is a person to develop permanent health issues if he/she is sensitive to and continuously exposed to marijuana fumes? [closed]
I'm a 29 year old male, I live in an apartment, and the tenant above me is smoking a lot of marijuana every day and has been doing so for the last three months**. The fumes are entering my apartment ...
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Does COVID-19 cause myocardial infarctions?
I heard that NYC hospitals are seeing an increased cases of myocardial infarction with higher mortality than normal during this COVID-19 pandemic. What the connection is between COVID-19 and ...
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Heart Attack Risk Score calculation
Someone recently mentionned to me a score to calculate my risk of having a heart attack in the next years.
Unfortunately he was not able to tell me where I could access this tool (or is this just ...
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What does "Townsend quintile" mean?
Can anyone tell me what does "Townsend quintile" mean exactly?
I am trying to use this cardiovascular risk assessment.
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1
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Is lemon juice bad for heart failure?
Drinking a lot of grapefruit juice is not recommended for patients with heart failure. Does the same apply to lemon juice? and whatever the answer, why?
My source for the assertion about grapefruit ...
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adequate exposure of the surgical field
What is meant by "adequate exposure of the surgical field" is this sentence:
During cardiac surgery, it is necessary to aspirate blood from the cardiac chambers to provide adequate exposure of the ...
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Bradyarrhythmia & Bradycardia- same or different?
Do Bradyarrhythmia & Bradycardia denote same abnormality or are there some finer differences between the two?? In text provided by my college, it appears bradycardia condition comes under the ...
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Hard water and cardiovascular problems
Wikipedia cites one 1970 study by Voors claiming that drinking hard water lessens the odds of dying from atherosclerosis. The stud itself even makes some bolder claims stratified by race, namely that ...
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Is it possible to calculating HRV from heart rate alone?
I don't have ECG graphs and R-R peaks, but I need to calculate the HRV(heart rate variability). Is it possible to calculate this from the heart rate alone? How reliable would that be?
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What are the potential effects of mobile phones on pacemaker function?
I was wondering if mobile phone can negatively effect pacemakers.
Most websites recommend reduced phone usage, but I can't find any research that explains how they can interfere with pacemakers.
...
LAG HAL
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Why does breathing stop during cardiac arrest?
I've been reading about resuscitation, and found several suggestions that people don't continue breathing after effective heart function stops because the diaphragm quickly runs out of oxygen. Is ...
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Why is the crescendo-decrescendo systolic murmur best heard at the cardiac base?
I'm writing a paper and came across a very specific question about heart sounds.
Why is the crescendo-decrescendo systolic murmur best heard at the cardiac base? and why does it radiate to carotids?
...
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What's the difference between a fast heart rate during exercise, and a fast heart rate during an anxiety attack?
I'm curious to know what the difference is between having a fast heart rate during exercise and having a fast heart rate say at rest or during an anxiety attack.
It's known that exercise is good for ...
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Decisions about anticoagulation in atrial fibrillation: how to factor in thrombocytopenia?
The benefit of anticoagulation for prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation has been well established. However, the benefit is always to be weighed against the risk, in this case, ...
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Mechanisms that causes prominent veins during physical exercise
I have just read this article about why veins become prominent while exercising: Why do veins pop out when exercising, and is that good or bad?
I have some questions about this:
The article ...
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40 y/o woman admitted with ARDS but normal values
Second year medical student asking:
A 40 year old woman is admitted to the ICU with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to a life threatening case of pneumonia.
Her respiratory values are as ...
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How does a prosthetic heart valve "burst"?
I have a friend who's father died suddenly, and the coroner described the cause as his prosthetic heart valve "bursting." Can someone illustrate in words what that means, and would heart ...
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Ventricular diastolic pressure?
So, I have been wondering and couldn't find texts explaining this, but why is the diastolic volume of the circulation ~80, while that of the ventricles is almost 0. To phrase it another way, why does ...
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1
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How does a cardiopulmonary bypass machine continue circulation without cutting off circulation to the pulmonary veins and artery?
So, my first stop in trying to answer this question was on Johns Hopkins website, but they are way too vague about the procedure, especially the use of a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. The only ...
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What causes a notch in the atrial pressure?
I wanted to know why there is a sort of fluctuation in "E" in the tracing of the atrial pressure right before the mitral valve opens (not the notch because of the Aortic valve closure).
Source for ...
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Eggs & heart health?
How does egg consumption impact atherosclerosis/cardiovascular disease risk? I'd especially welcome experimental studies.
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Is there such a thing as a hard heart beat? (as opposed to a fast heart beat)
I've picked up weight lifting recently and the thing I've noticed is that it really gets the heart pumping. After a heavy set of squats for instance I can hear my heart beating in my ears and feel it ...
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Why do semilunar valves not need tendinae but atrioventricular valves do?
Inside the heart the atrioventricular valves (AV) have chordae tendineae to prevent the backflow of blood into the atrium when the ventricle contracts.
Since the AV and semilunar valves are ...
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When a person is seriously injured, what's the point of CPR?
I have taken CPR training and I have a question about it.
Sometimes one reads in the newspaper about a person injured in a car crash or anything tried CPR in vain.
I'm asking when a person is ...
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How to assess the risk of "cardiac event" for a healthy runner? [closed]
It appears to be dreadfully not uncommon that seemingly healthy people suddenly die of "cardiac events" when doing physical exercises. Here is just another sad example: a healthy and regularly running ...
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What natural supplements exist to lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol?
The doctor told me to use Niacin or Red Yeast to reduce cholesterol. Examine.com, which seems to be pretty legit, seems to support using Garlic as a natural alternative. What supplements exist with ...
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Is heart rate indicative of sleep phase?
Lately I've been using an alarm clock that determines what phase of sleep you are in (light or deep) so that it waits until you are at a lighter sleep phase before waking you up.
It does this by ...
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73
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Are defibrillator leads actually clashed against each other?
In movies or television, the doctor gets giant heavy clothing iron sized leads. Clashes them together and uses them on the patient that has a flat lined heart and after doing it 1 times per second ...
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1
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Why patient has to be awake during cardiac catheterization? [closed]
Why couldn't the physicians put the patient under during the procedure?
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