Hu Said: Cardiology Board Review Series

In this episode, we review carotid artery stenosis (CAS), including its presentation, diagnosis, medical management, and intervention. Do dizziness, presyncope, or syncope count as symptomatic CAS? What is the definition of nondisabling stroke and transient cerebral ischemic symptoms? What risk factors permit ordering a carotid duplex ultrasound before coronary artery bypass graft surgery? What pe...

In this episode, we review limb peripheral artery disease (PAD). What is the difference in management of a marginally threatened limb vs immediately threatened limb? In whom can you order ankle brachial index (ABI) testing on? When do you reach for toe brachial index (TBI) or exercise ABI? Is there a role for cilostazol or pentoxifylline? Who should be given low-dose rivaroxaban therapy? Tune in f...

In this episode, we review aortic intramural hematoma (IMH), penetrating aortic ulcer (PAU), infectious aortitis and aortic atheroemboli. What condition is characterized by a crescentic aortic wall thickening and echolucency within the aortic wall with no intimal flap on transesophageal echocardiogram? What percent of IMH progresses to aortic dissection? What imaging findings distinguish IMH from...

In this episode, we review aortic dissection, its risk factors, presentation, physical exam findings, imaging findings, and management. Other than aortic dissection, what other cardiovascular conditions can present with unequal arterial pulsations? How do gender and age affect the risk of aortic dissection? What are risks for aortic dissection for women, especially during pregnancy, and for patien...

In this episode, we review abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), including its diagnosis, screening, and management. What are the current guidelines for screening and surveillance of AAA, and how do they differ for men and women? At what size does the risk of rupture significantly increase, and what surveillance intervals are recommended based on the size of the aneurysm? What does Laplace's Law say ab...

In this episode, we review ascending aorta dilation and ascending aorta aneurysm, including the key syndromes associated. What is cystic medial degeneration? Which diseases cause dilation of the aortic root versus dilation of the ascending aorta? In which diseases is ascending aorta dilation defined by diameter (cm) versus body surface area-indexed diameter (cm/m^2) versus aortic root cross sectio...

In this episode, we review left ventricular (LV) thrombus, including its pathophysiology, imaging characteristics, and treatment. How are the components of Virchow's triad disrupted by myocardial infarction, predisposing to formation of LV thrombus? What are the echocardiographic features of LV thrombus? How can LV thrombus be distinguished from myxoma on cardiac MRI and angiogram? Can the chronic...

In this episode, we review deep vein thrombosis (DVT). What are the ultrasound features of a DVT? What counts as a proximal DVT? Why are patients with proximal DVT at higher risk, and how does this impact management? What are the recommended anticoagulation strategies, including the use of DOACs versus VKAs? How long should anticoagulation continue for provoked versus unprovoked DVT? When is indef...

In this episode, we review how to calculate pulmonary artery pressures (PASP) on echocardiography. How does the simplified Bernoulli equation relate the velocity of flow through the tricuspid valve (tricuspid regurgitant velocity, V_TR) to the right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP)? When is it permissible and not permissible to assume that PASP is equivalent to RVSP? How can the maximal tricus...

In this episode, we review the essentials of pulmonary hypertension (PH), including the five groups. What echocardiographic findings allow you to distinguish between pre-capillary and post-capillary PH without information from right heart catheterization? In patients with PH non-vasoresponsive to nitric oxide, how do you decide whether to use phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE-5 inhibitors), pros...

In this episode, we dive into the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of inflammatory pericarditis. How do diagnostic criteria differ for first-time pericarditis and recurrent pericarditis? What is the sequence of ECG changes over the course of pericarditis? How many components would you expect to hear in a pericardial friction rub? Is post-MI pericarditis the same thing as Dressler's syndro...

In this episode, we review pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade. What is the definition of small, moderate, and large pericardial effusion? What is ventricular interdependence? What is pulsus paradoxus? What conditions can cause a false positive or false negative pulsus paradoxus? What comprises Beck's triad? What are seven cardinal findings of tamponade physiology on echocardiography? What...

In this episode, we review patient-prosthesis mismatch (PPM) and prosthetic valve stenosis. What cutoffs for indexed effective orifice area (EOA) suggest severe, moderate, or mild PPM of an aortic valve prosthesis? What about for mitral valve prosthesis? What are the causes of prosthetic valve stenosis? How do you differentiate PPM from prosthetic valve stenosis using Doppler velocity index (DVI),...

In this episode, we review anticoagulant targets after valve replacement. What are the anticoagulation goals for mechanical and bioprosthetic valves? Why does a mechanical mitral valve have a higher INR target compared to a mechanical aortic valve? What are the risk factors that can increase the target INR for a mechanical aortic valve? How does the On-X mechanical valve’s anticoagulation regimen...

In this episode, we continue our review on infective endocarditis (IE), covering antibiotic prophylaxis, prosthesis-related endocarditis, and device-related infections. Which are the high-risk cardiac conditions and high-risk procedures that warrant antibiotic prophylaxis for IE? How do the pathogens differ between early and late prosthetic valve endocarditis, and how do these impact prognosis and...

In this episode, we review the epidemiology, diagnosis, and management of infective endocarditis (IE). What five cardinal characteristics lead you to suspect a vegetation on echocardiography? Which heart valves are most commonly affected, and how does the microbial etiology differ between IV drug use and non-drug use-related endocarditis? When is it appropriate to repeat transthoracic echocardiogr...

In this episode, we review how to differentiate the Doppler signals of aortic stenosis (AS), mitral regurgitation (MR), tricuspid regurgitation (TR), and left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) in hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) – as all four of these occur during the systolic phase of the cardiac cycle. Which jets are separated by the isovolumic contraction time (IVCT) a...

In this special episode, we sit down and examine the flowcharts for guideline-based quantification of aortic regurgitation (AR) severity, mitral regurgitation (MR) severity, and tricuspid regurgitation (TR) severity, and compare and contrast the differences in the cutoffs used, and the physiologic reasons for these differences. How are EROA and regurgitant volume thresholds the same or different a...

In this episode, we review pulmonic stenosis (PS) and pulmonic regurgitation (PR). How do you distinguish between the click of pulmonic stenosis, aortic stenosis, Ebstein anomaly, and mitral valve prolapse? What cutoffs in peak velocity and mean gradient define severe, moderate, and mild PS? What is branch PS? Is surgical repair or pulmonary balloon valvuloplasty preferred for the treatment of mod...

In this episode, we review tricuspid stenosis (TS) and tricuspid regurgitation (TR). What are the echocardiographic criteria for diagnosing severe TS, and how does it differ from that of severe mitral stenosis? Which etiology of TR would have diffuse leaflet thickening with restriction of opening due to commisural fusion, chordal shortening, and calcification with characteristic diastolic doming?...

In this episode, we review the management of mitral regurgitation (MR). How is the management of chronic primary MR, chronic secondary, and acute MR different from each other? What is the relative difficulty of repair for Carpentier type I vs II vs III type MR? In patients with severe primary MR who are asymptomatic, what are the four factors which permit mitral valve surgery? Why does the LV end-...

In this episode, we review methods to quantify the severity of mitral regurgitation (MR), including the calculation of effective regurgitant orifice area (EROA) and regurgitant volume (RVol) by the proximal isovelocity surface area (PISA) method, and calculation of EROA and RVol using stroke volume by the continuity equation. What numerical cutoffs for EROA, RVol, and regurgitant fraction (RF) ind...

In this episode, we explore how mitral regurgitation (MR) is categorized based on anatomy, leaflet motion, and acuity. Are the A1, A2, A3, P1, P2, P3 scallops/segments of the mitral valve named from medial to lateral or lateral to medial? What is the difference between primary and secondary MR, and what are the most common etiologies of each? How does the Carpentier classification system categoriz...

In this episode, we review mitral stenosis (MS), including its epidemiology, presentation, imaging features, and management. What are the main causes of MS? What do the the characteristic "fish mouth" and "hockey stick" signs on echocardiography signify regarding the etiology of MS? How do mitral valve area, pressure gradients, and pressure half-time factor into determining the severity of MS, and...

In this episode, we review the types, presentation, physical exam, and management of aortic regurgitation (AR). What is the difference between types Ia, Ib, Ic, Id, II, and III aortic regurgitation? Why is the murmur of acute AR barely audible compared to the murmur of chronic AR? What are Corrigan's pulse, Muller's sign, Quincke's sign, and De Musset's sign? What is the Austin Flint murmur? Why s...