News & Updates

My patient complained of palpitations. I ordered a 24-hour Holter monitor. Nothing is more frustrating than receiving a report stating “arrhythmias seen, no diary submitted,” and then finding out from the patient that they were never asked to even keep a diary during monitoring. From my perspective, the patient’s time and money, as well as […]

  Just like a magician performing the perfect illusion, ECG interpretation, when done right, is an art that anyone can learn. Unlike magic, though, there is no misdirection and everything is straight forward. Let’s review how to properly read an ECG.   Reading the ECG is easy, but it is imperative to follow a system. […]

Heart failure (HF), also called congestive heart failure, is one of the most common hospital diagnoses and therefore is encountered by almost every medical specialty. This article summarizes and simplifies HF.   What Is Heart Failure   Although HF is a diagnosis upon itself, I view it as a clinical syndrome that always has another […]

Although electrocardiograms (ECGs/EKGs) are performed routinely, they are not always done correctly and consistently. As such, I wrote this article to explain the proper electrocardiogram (EKG/ECG) setup and lead placement. The goal is to help standardize all ECGs. Background For decades, I noticed a significant inconsistency in the way electrocardiograms are performed.  I asked nurses, […]

  Healthcare providers need to be able to recognize the symptoms, and risk factors of heart attacks (myocardial infarctions) as well as know the ECG criteria and basic treatments. This article reviews the signs and symptoms of myocardial infarctions, elaborates on the risk factors, teaches the ECG criteria of heart attacks and describes basic treatments. […]

During my internal medicine residency, one of our cardiologists would constantly pimp us on arrhythmias. We all had to memorize that arrhythmias were “abnormalities of impulse formation and/or conduction.” But, let’s get real – arrhythmias are simply abnormal heartbeats. There are many ways to classify arrhythmias, multiple means for diagnosing arrhythmias and numerous causes of […]

Patients frequently ask me how I choose their tests and treatment. Tests, I say, confirm or exclude my clinical diagnoses. In addition, the result of a test should alter my decision making process for their care. I only suggest a treatment that will help them live longer, prevent something bad from happening, or make them […]