So this is probably my biggest pet hate. The media, TV programs and numerous resources interchange these terms frequently - incorrectly assuming they mean the same thing, they do NOT! The way I always describe the difference in this (and in fact when I teach other areas) is to think of the heart like … Continue reading A Heart attack and a Cardiac arrest are NOT the same!
STEMI
The Ambulatory ECG
So you have to have or are training to put on holter monitors! What are they? I will start with the ECG holter monitor. In a similar way to the 12 lead ECG, it records the electrical activity in the heart, predominantly looking at the rate and rhythm. However we tend to only use 3 … Continue reading The Ambulatory ECG
How do you become a Cardiac Physiologist?
The training of cardiac physiologists has changed a lot through the history of the profession. Personally I did a 4 year honours degree specifically in clinical physiology (cardiology), I worked at my training hospital for that time and was on day release to university for my lectures. Today things are very different. There are two … Continue reading How do you become a Cardiac Physiologist?
Cancelled Operations
This topic seems to be around a lot at the moment, with the BBC running a story on cancelled cancer operations. Moreover this point being very well explored, again by the BBC, in their show Hospital (a program I encourage all of you to watch!) I wanted to put our perspective across. I work primarily … Continue reading Cancelled Operations
What is a Cardiac Physiologist?
My aim with this post is to give a brief overview of what we do, I will go further into certain aspects of my work in subsequent posts. So who are we? We are professionals who have specifically trained in cardiology, with the aim to be able to provide a variety of clinical tests to … Continue reading What is a Cardiac Physiologist?