Cardiovascular

How to recognise, risk-stratify and treat inflammation of the pericardium, and tell it apart from a heart attack.

How aspirin, P2Y12 inhibitors, heparins, warfarin and DOACs prevent and treat clots, with dosing, reversal, durations and combinations across ACS, AF, VTE.

How aortic aneurysms form, who to screen, when to repair, and how to recognise and manage rupture.

A tear in the aortic wall: recognising it fast, controlling aortic wall stress, and choosing emergency surgery or TEVAR.

The patient with a fast heart rate or palpitations: red flags, history, ECG, the unstable-patient rule, and the stable pathway by QRS width and regularity.

How atherosclerotic plaque forms and ruptures, and how cardiovascular risk is assessed with SCORE2, PREVENT and pooled cohort equations.

Atrial fibrillation and flutter: types, causes, ECG, emergency cardioversion, rate and rhythm control, ablation, and stroke prevention with CHA2DS2-VASc.

A common benign heart tumour: how it blocks, embolises and inflames, how echocardiography finds it, and why it is removed urgently.

Slow heart rhythms and conduction block: sinus node disease, first- to third-degree AV block, emergency treatment and pacemaker indications.

How bundle branch blocks and fascicular blocks arise, how to read them, and what they mean for ischaemia, syncope, pacing and resynchronisation.

Recognition of cardiac arrest, high-quality CPR, adult ALS algorithms, drugs, reversible causes and post-arrest care.

Choosing and interpreting cardiac imaging and stress tests: echocardiography, exercise ECG, stress echo, nuclear MPI, coronary CT and cardiac MRI.

How to examine the heart at the bedside: hands, pulses, blood pressure, JVP, precordium, heart sounds, murmurs and oedema, and what each sign means.

Fluid or blood around the heart raises pressure until the chambers cannot fill. Recognise tamponade, read the echo and drain before shock kills.

A syndrome of low cardiac output and tissue hypoperfusion from cardiac dysfunction, its stages, inotropes and vasopressors, and mechanical circulatory support.

Carotid artery narrowing as a cause of TIA and stroke: how to grade it, who benefits from endarterectomy or stenting, and how to treat the plaque.

What chronic coronary syndrome is, how stable angina arises, how to confirm it, and how to manage it over the long term.

Congenital heart disease that survives into adult life: common lesions, late complications, investigation and management in adults.

Stiff pericardium causing diastolic heart failure: signs, echo and catheter findings, management, and how to separate it from restriction and tamponade

Deep vein thrombosis: Virchow's triad, risk factors, diagnosis with Wells and D-dimer, imaging, anticoagulation dosing and duration, complications.

Left ventricular dilation with systolic dysfunction not explained by load or coronary disease: causes, tests, family screening, and HFrEF-based treatment.

How lipoproteins drive atherosclerosis, how to estimate cardiovascular risk, and how to lower LDL-C to guideline targets with lifestyle and drug therapy.

What the 12-lead ECG records and a systematic way to read it: rate, rhythm, axis, intervals, ischaemia, chamber enlargement, artefacts and who needs one.

Essential hypertension: definitions and BP thresholds by guideline, measurement, risk, and treatment from lifestyle to resistant hypertension.

Heart failure: definition, classification by ejection fraction, stage and NYHA class, causes, diagnosis, four-pillar drug therapy, devices, acute care.

A severe rise in blood pressure with organ damage is a hypertensive emergency; a severe rise without it is not. How to recognise, assess and treat each.

A thick, stiff heart muscle that can obstruct outflow, cause breathlessness and fainting, and cause sudden death — and how treatment changes the outlook.

Brugada syndrome, CPVT and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy: how they are found, how families are screened, and how athletes stay safe.

Inherited and acquired long QT syndrome: repolarisation, QTc measurement, genotypes, torsades de pointes, diagnosis, beta-blockers, ICD, sport and pregnancy.

Chronic swelling from lymphatic failure: recognition, staging and lifelong management of primary and secondary lymphoedema.

MINOCA, Takotsubo and SCAD: definitions, mechanisms, diagnosis, imaging and management of myocardial infarction without obstructive coronary disease and.

Inflammation of the heart muscle: viral and immune causes, how cardiac MRI diagnoses it, management, and its link to dilated cardiomyopathy.

How pacemakers, ICDs and CRT work, their pacing codes and indications, shocks, follow-up, and safe care in MRI and surgery.

Risk indices, functional capacity, testing and cardiac drugs around non-cardiac surgery: a current evidence-based approach.

Atherosclerotic narrowing of the lower limb arteries: how it causes claudication, rest pain and gangrene, how the ABI and duplex find it, and how to treat it.

Care after a heart attack: complications to watch for, secondary prevention, cardiac rehabilitation, and return to work, driving and daily life.

Raynaud phenomenon and vasculitis of the limbs: primary and secondary Raynaud, scleroderma link, thromboangiitis obliterans, and treatment.

Stiff ventricles that cannot relax: how restricted filling causes heart failure, from amyloid to fibrosis, and how to tell it from constrictive pericarditis.

Secondary hypertension: how to spot the identifiable causes of high blood pressure, test for them, and treat each one.

How coronary occlusion causes STEMI: ECG criteria and territories, reperfusion by PCI or fibrinolysis, antithrombotic drugs and post-infarct care.

Supraventricular tachycardias: sinus, atrial, AVNRT and AVRT types, the ECG approach, vagal manoeuvres, adenosine, cardioversion, ablation and special groups.

Syncope is brief, self-limited loss of consciousness from cerebral hypoperfusion. Classify the cause, spot red flags, and choose tests and treatment.

How acute coronary syndromes present as unstable angina or NSTEMI: definition, pathophysiology, diagnosis, troponin pathways, risk scores, and management.

The main valve lesions: presentation, echo severity grading and timing of intervention, plus pregnancy, endocarditis prophylaxis and rheumatic fever prevention.

Rest angina from transient coronary spasm: triggers, ECG changes, diagnosis, treatment, and arrhythmia risk.

PVCs, ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation and torsades de pointes: ECG recognition, cardiac arrest, drugs, ICDs and ablation.

Ventricular pre-excitation through an accessory pathway: delta wave, AVRT, pre-excited AF and sudden death risk, why AV-nodal drugs harm, and ablation.

Acute arterial limb threat: the six Ps, Rutherford stages, embolism versus thrombosis, heparin and revascularisation, and reducing amputation.

Chronic venous disease and varicose veins: causes, CEAP staging, duplex ultrasound, compression, endovenous ablation, surgery, and venous ulcer care.

How to assess, risk-stratify and optimise patients before surgery: ASA grade, cardiac risk, fasting, prophylaxis, ERAS, consent and the WHO checklist.

Open and endovascular repair of aortic aneurysms, carotid endarterectomy, bypass, angioplasty, stents, amputation levels and complications.

Cardiac arrest recognition, high-quality CPR, defibrillation, drugs, reversible causes, post-arrest care and the 2025 ILCOR, AHA and Resuscitation Council.

Cardiac tamponade, blunt aortic injury and traumatic diaphragmatic rupture: emergency recognition, imaging, resuscitation and repair.

Haemorrhagic shock after trauma: ATLS classes, permissive hypotension, damage-control resuscitation, massive transfusion, TXA and coagulation care.

A practical guide to recognising a major incident, the START and SALT triage systems, the METHANE report, hospital response and CBRN basics.

How opioids, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers and digoxin poison, and the specific antidotes that reverse.

What shock is, the four types, bedside assessment, lactate, fluids, vasopressors and the emergency algorithm.

A clinical guide to recognising vascular injury in trauma, imaging it, repairing or shunting it, and preventing compartment syndrome and reperfusion injury.

How to recognise and manage cord prolapse, amniotic fluid embolism and maternal collapse, including resuscitation changes and peri-mortem caesarean.

How gestational and chronic hypertension in pregnancy are defined, classified, treated and monitored, differentiated from preeclampsia, with NICE, ACOG.

How pregnancy stresses the heart, how risk is graded with mWHO, and how valve disease, peripartum cardiomyopathy and anticoagulation are managed.

How pre-eclampsia, HELLP syndrome and eclampsia are defined, recognised, treated, followed up, and prevented, with current NICE, ACOG, RCOG and WHO guidance.

How pregnancy raises clot risk and how to assess, prevent, diagnose and treat VTE safely.

From strep throat to rheumatic carditis: Jones criteria, Sydenham chorea, valve damage, secondary prophylaxis and modern echocardiographic diagnosis.

Left-to-right shunts and left-sided obstructive lesions in children: physiology, recognition, echocardiography, and treatment.

The cyanotic heart lesions: right-to-left shunt physiology, bedside and radiograph clues, initial stabilisation, and definitive surgery.

Acute medium-vessel vasculitis of childhood: prolonged fever with mucocutaneous signs and risk of coronary aneurysm; treated with IVIG and aspirin.

How to recognise a sick child, use paediatric early warning scores, and resuscitate with current paediatric BLS and PALS.