Volume 199 - Issue 8
Arrhythmia management distilled
Author: William F Heddle
Med J Aust 2013; 199 (8): 559. || doi: 10.5694/mja13.10749
Published online: 21 October 2013
Published online: 21 October 2013
The authors of this book work in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, and are well known to and respected by many Australian cardiologists working in the field of cardiac arrhythmia. The first edition was published in 2010. In view of the rapid advances in arrhythmia management, particularly the new medication and guidelines for management of atrial fibrillation (AF), as well as in catheter ablation, ...
Fast facts: cardiac arrhythmias, 2nd ed.
Gerry Kaye, Steve Furniss, Robert Lemery. Abingdon, UK: Health Press, 2013 (148 pp, US$25.00). ISBN 9781908541253.
The authors of this book work in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, and are well known to and respected by many Australian cardiologists working in the field of cardiac arrhythmia. The first edition was published in 2010. In view of the rapid advances in arrhythmia management, particularly the new medication and guidelines for management of atrial fibrillation (AF), as well as in catheter ablation, the authors considered a second edition warranted.
The target audience includes general practitioners, nurses, medical students, technicians and cardiology trainees. The layout is as simple as possible for a very complex subject. As is to be expected, because of its prevalence, AF is given prominence. The use of two important guidelines for assessing risk of thromboembolism and bleeding in patients with AF is emphasised: the CHA2DS2-VASc (congestive heart failure, hypertension, age >75 years [doubled], diabetes mellitus, stroke [doubled], vascular disease, age 65–74 years, sex category) score; and the HAS-BLED (hypertension, abnormal renal/liver function, stroke, bleeding history or predisposition, labile international normalised ratio, elderly, drugs/alcohol concomitantly) score.
Some antiarrhythmic drugs mentioned are unavailable in Australia, and the newer oral anticoagulants currently have only limited availability here. Hence, it is a little difficult to strictly follow the European and North American guidelines.
The vast majority of the information provided is correct; however, there are a few points with which I disagree. For example, lidocaine (lignocaine) is stated as having only minor negative inotropy, but experiments by Professor Robert McRitchie (personal communication) have shown it to be one of the most powerful negative inotropes of all antiarrhythmics.
In my opinion, the book is a concentrated distillation of the major points in arrhythmia management, and is potentially very useful for the target audience; it is certainly good value for money.