Book Review: “Kardiovaskularne bolesti i komorbiditeti”

    Authors

    DOI

    https://doi.org/10.15836/ccar2019.112

    Full Text

    Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of mortality and account for 31% of total deaths globally according to data from the World Health Organization. An analysis of standardized mortality rates per 100,000 inhabitants found that in Italy, a country with one of the healthiest populations in the world, CVD mortality rate is 2.5 times lower than in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this in mind, it is not surprising that the editors of the book “Kardiovaskularne bolesti i komorbiditeti” (eng. Cardiovascular Diseases and Comorbidities) activated as many as 36 experts – specialists and subspecialists from the fields of internal medicine, anesthesiology, surgery, and other fields. Most co-authors work at clinical hospitals in Tuzla and Sarajevo, and two authors are employed outside Bosnia and Herzegovina. Which novelties does this work bring in comparison with existing and well-known books and reputable handbooks? The 554 pages of text in the book can be grouped into three thematic units: patient states that represent an emergency and require immediate treatment, stratification of preoperative risk, and identification and evaluation of the significance of risk factors or comorbidities. Each of the 20 or so units are discussed using a trilateral approach – from the perspective of the patient, general practitioner, and consulting physician. Furthermore, important topics such as effective interpersonal communication, teamwork, and cooperation in medicine supplement this edition and provide a holistic approach to this topic. Knowledge, skills, and technological capabilities are important for clinical cardiology. One everyday example of both experience and optimal communication being crucial to prognosis are requests for medical consultations, i.e. consultant examinations. As more than half of hospitalized patients have two or more chronic diseases and are at an advanced age, medical consultations are most commonly performed by internists, cardiologists, and anesthesiologists, so it comes as no surprise that specialization in these fields is predominant among the coauthors for this book. The stratification of cardiovascular or respiratory risk, optimization of cardiologic therapy, or regulation of glycaemia represent the most common clinical questions. A skillful consulting physician will, like a virtuoso pianist brilliantly interpreting the opus of Frédéric Chopin, know how to properly approach the patient, understand the clinical question, determine the level of urgency, and be as available as necessary. Their recommendations on careful monitoring of the disease, performing additional diagnostic processing, and pharmacological, interventional, surgical, or rehabilitation treatment will be based on their acquired knowledge, experience, and competencies, but must also be adequately communicated. Regardless of the clinical scenario in which the consultant examination takes place, whether it is an intensive care unit, a department, hemodialysis, emergency room, or just telephone cooversation, a successful consultant examination benefits the patient and engenders positive feelings in the medical professional. The skill of performing a consultant examination is therefore worth developing and improving, which is not possible without adequate knowledge that is described in a practical fashion in this book. The publication of this book represents a great advancement for cardiology in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region as a whole, commensurate to the creation of the first all-encompassing course book in cardiology, published in 2006. The book “Kardiovaskularne bolesti i komorbiditeti” does not simply represent another expanded list of differential diagnoses in internal medicine/cardiology. By addressing issues from everyday clinical practice in a clear and conceptually developed way, this book instructs us on whether we should approach the patient probabilistically, prognostically, or pragmatically, and is very applicable in everyday clinical practice.

    Cardiologia Croatica
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    Book Review: “Kardiovaskularne bolesti i komorbiditeti”

    Book Review
    Issue3-4
    Published
    Pages112-113
    PDF via DOIhttps://doi.org/10.15836/ccar2019.112

    Authors

    Mario Ivanuša*ORCIDInstitute for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, Zagreb, Croatia

    Full Text

    Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of mortality and account for 31% of total deaths globally according to data from the World Health Organization. An analysis of standardized mortality rates per 100,000 inhabitants found that in Italy, a country with one of the healthiest populations in the world, CVD mortality rate is 2.5 times lower than in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this in mind, it is not surprising that the editors of the book “Kardiovaskularne bolesti i komorbiditeti” (eng. Cardiovascular Diseases and Comorbidities) activated as many as 36 experts – specialists and subspecialists from the fields of internal medicine, anesthesiology, surgery, and other fields. Most co-authors work at clinical hospitals in Tuzla and Sarajevo, and two authors are employed outside Bosnia and Herzegovina. Which novelties does this work bring in comparison with existing and well-known books and reputable handbooks? The 554 pages of text in the book can be grouped into three thematic units: patient states that represent an emergency and require immediate treatment, stratification of preoperative risk, and identification and evaluation of the significance of risk factors or comorbidities. Each of the 20 or so units are discussed using a trilateral approach – from the perspective of the patient, general practitioner, and consulting physician. Furthermore, important topics such as effective interpersonal communication, teamwork, and cooperation in medicine supplement this edition and provide a holistic approach to this topic. Knowledge, skills, and technological capabilities are important for clinical cardiology. One everyday example of both experience and optimal communication being crucial to prognosis are requests for medical consultations, i.e. consultant examinations. As more than half of hospitalized patients have two or more chronic diseases and are at an advanced age, medical consultations are most commonly performed by internists, cardiologists, and anesthesiologists, so it comes as no surprise that specialization in these fields is predominant among the coauthors for this book. The stratification of cardiovascular or respiratory risk, optimization of cardiologic therapy, or regulation of glycaemia represent the most common clinical questions. A skillful consulting physician will, like a virtuoso pianist brilliantly interpreting the opus of Frédéric Chopin, know how to properly approach the patient, understand the clinical question, determine the level of urgency, and be as available as necessary. Their recommendations on careful monitoring of the disease, performing additional diagnostic processing, and pharmacological, interventional, surgical, or rehabilitation treatment will be based on their acquired knowledge, experience, and competencies, but must also be adequately communicated. Regardless of the clinical scenario in which the consultant examination takes place, whether it is an intensive care unit, a department, hemodialysis, emergency room, or just telephone cooversation, a successful consultant examination benefits the patient and engenders positive feelings in the medical professional. The skill of performing a consultant examination is therefore worth developing and improving, which is not possible without adequate knowledge that is described in a practical fashion in this book. The publication of this book represents a great advancement for cardiology in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region as a whole, commensurate to the creation of the first all-encompassing course book in cardiology, published in 2006. The book “Kardiovaskularne bolesti i komorbiditeti” does not simply represent another expanded list of differential diagnoses in internal medicine/cardiology. By addressing issues from everyday clinical practice in a clear and conceptually developed way, this book instructs us on whether we should approach the patient probabilistically, prognostically, or pragmatically, and is very applicable in everyday clinical practice.