Cardiology is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease, and electrophysiology. Physicians who specialize in this field of medicine are called cardiologists, a specialty of internal medicine. Pediatric cardiologists are pediatricians who specialize in cardiology. Physicians who specialize in cardiac surgery are called cardiothoracic surgeons or cardiac surgeons, a specialty of general surgery.
Helen Brooke Taussig was an American cardiologist, working in Baltimore and Boston, who founded the field of pediatric cardiology. She is credited with developing the concept for a procedure that would extend the lives of children born with Tetralogy of Fallot. This concept was applied in practice as a procedure known as the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt. The procedure was developed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, who were Taussig's colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
A catheterization laboratory, commonly referred to as a cath lab, is an examination room in a hospital or clinic with diagnostic imaging equipment used to visualize the arteries of the heart and the chambers of the heart and treat any stenosis or abnormality found.
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a minimally invasive non-surgical procedure used to treat narrowing of the coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary artery disease. The procedure is used to place and deploy coronary stents, a permanent wire-meshed tube, to open narrowed coronary arteries. PCI is considered 'non-surgical' as it uses a small hole in a peripheral artery (leg/arm) to gain access to the arterial system, an equivalent surgical procedure would involve the opening of the chest wall to gain access to the heart area. The term 'coronary angioplasty with stent' is synonymous with PCI. The procedure visualises the blood vessels via fluoroscopic imaging and contrast dyes. PCI is performed by an interventional cardiologists in a catheterization laboratory setting.
The history of invasive and interventional cardiology is complex, with multiple groups working independently on similar technologies. Invasive and interventional cardiology is currently closely associated with cardiologists, though the development and most of its early research and procedures were performed by diagnostic and interventional radiologists.
Avijit Lahiri is a researcher in cardiology in the UK.
A coronary CT calcium scan is a computed tomography (CT) scan of the heart for the assessment of severity of coronary artery disease. Specifically, it looks for calcium deposits in atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries that can narrow arteries and increase the risk of heart attack. These plaques are the cause of most heart attacks, and become calcified as they develop.
Valentín Fuster Carulla, 1st Marquess of Fuster is a Spanish cardiologist and aristocrat.
John Eric Deanfield is a British professor of cardiology and past Olympic fencer.
John S. Rumsfeld is an American cardiologist. He is the Chief Innovation Officer for the American College of Cardiology, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He was previously the National Director of Cardiology for the U.S. Veterans Health Administration. Rumsfeld was named as Chief Innovation Officer for American College of Cardiology in 2015.
Jane Somerville is a British emeritus professor of cardiology, Imperial College, who is best known for defining the concept and subspecialty of grown ups with congenital heart disease (GUCH) and being chosen as the physician involved with Britain's first heart transplantation in 1968.
Michael John Tynan MD FRCP was Professor of Paediatric Cardiology at Guy’s Hospital (1982–99) and is a member of Cambridge University’s Paediatric Cardiology Hall of Fame.
Murray Stanley Hoffman was an American cardiologist, educator and diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Cardiovascular Disease, a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a member of the Council on Clinical Cardiology (CLCD) of the American Heart Association.
Crista supraventricularis is a muscular ridge within the right ventricle of the heart. It is located between the tricuspid and pulmonic valves, at the junction of the right ventricular anterior (free) wall and the interventricular septum. It has a "U-shaped" morphology, which serves as a "trough" for the proximal right coronary artery.
Douglas L. Mann is an American physician. He is currently the Lewin Distinguished Professor in Cardiovascular Diseases and professor of medicine, cell biology and physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Rosemary Radley-Smith was a British paediatric cardiologist who worked at Harefield Hospital, west London for many years and founded several charities. In 2001, she received the Pride of Britain Award.
The congenital heart block (CHB) is the heart block that is diagnosed in fetus or within the first 28 days after birth, some studies also include the diagnosis during early childhood to the definition of CHB. It refers to the disorder in the electrical conduction system within the heart muscle, which leads to the failure in pumping the blood efficiently into the aorta and the pulmonary trunk. The result of CHB can be first, second, or third-degree (complete) atrioventricular block in which no electric signals move from the atrium to the ventricles
John A. Ambrose is an American physician who is an expert in coronary artery disease. He is one of the pioneers in acute coronary syndromes having published over 40 articles in the cardiology literature between 1985 and 2000 on their pathogenesis. He has also published on cigarette smoking and cardiovascular disease. Working with his PhD candidate, Rajat Barua, utilizing a novel in vitro model, they described the effects of cigarette smoking on nitric oxide biosynthesis, endothelial function, and endothelial-derived fibrinolytic and antithrombotic factors. Their 2004 update on cigarette smoking and cardiovascular disease published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has been referenced over 2,100 times as of 2020. Ambrose is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He was also a Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital and received a National Leadership Award from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Richard Gorlin was an American cardiologist known for his contributions to the fields of valvular heart disease, coronary artery disease and cardiac catheterization, digitalis and vasodilators in congestive heart failure, and thrombolysis in myocardial infarctions. Along with his father, developed the Gorlin formula used to calculate valve areas in aortic valve stenosis and mitral valve stenosis.
Jane Wimpfheimer Newburger is an American pediatrician who is Commonwealth Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Associate Cardiologist-in-Chief at the Boston Children's Hospital. Her research has considered the fundamental mechanisms that underpin Kawasaki disease and the outcomes of children suffering from congenital heart defects. She was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine in 2021.
