Although medical students are rarely instructed in traffic medicine in Germany, they are obliged to inform their patients about their fitness to drive after having become a medical doctor. This article gives an overview on the fitness to drive for patients with syncope by referring to the driving license regulation and the current guidelines released by the department of traffic. The driving license regulation distinguishes between group 1 and group 2 drivers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Medical students are taught little or nothing about the medical considerations related to the driving of motor vehicles. Physicians treating patients with cardiovascular disease need to acquire competence in traffic medicine in order to be able to advise them about their fitness to drive.
Methods: We present the current governmental regulations and recommendations concerning fitness to drive in patients with cardiovascular disease.
Resuscitation in cardiac arrest rarely results in survival with a good neurologic outcome. It is therefore a common problem to decide when resuscitation should not be initiated or an ongoing attempt has to be terminated. Resuscitation attempts should be withheld or terminated if there is a do not resuscitate order (DNR), if resuscitation is not in accordance with the presumptive will of the patient or does not have a chance to allow the patient to continue an independent living.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Atrial fibrillation is the most common type of cardiac arrhythmia and is associated with elevated rates of stroke, heart failure, hospital admission, and death. Its prevalence in the overall population is 1.5% to 2%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerzschrittmacherther Elektrophysiol
March 2016
In October 2015, new guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) were published, which represent a revision of the guidelines 2010. The new recommendations are based on an update of knowledge on resuscitation, which was evaluated for the first time by GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation). The key messages of the guidelines 2010 were retained in 2015.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDtsch Med Wochenschr
August 2014
We report the case of a 53-year-old man who presented with typical angina and dyspnea on exertion. Besides coronary artery disease based on atherosclerosis, the patient demonstrated a rare coronary anomaly consisting of an atypical connection of the left coronary system with the left ventricle. Both pathologic conditions could be treated successfully by cardiac operations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Information about the clinical course of patients with acute myocardial infarction requiring mechanical ventilation is scarce. We sought to evaluate the clinical outcome of a large cohort of such patients in clinical practice.
Methods: The German BEAT registry prospectively enrolled consecutive patients requiring mechanical ventilation who were admitted to an internal intensive care unit (ICU) of 45 participating German hospitals between September 2001 and June 2002.
Background: The severity of aortic regurgitation (AR) can be determined by invasive or echocardiographic methods. We systematically compared quantitative invasive and echocardiographic data with semiquantitative invasive grades in a prospective series of patients.
Methods: Using Doppler-echocardiography we determined the cardiac output over the aortic, pulmonary and mitral valve in 27 patients (20 with, 7 without AR).
Cardiovascular alterations during pregnancy are characterized by an increased vascular volume, cardiac output, and heart rate, with a marked fall in vascular resistance. Cardiac output is about 40-50% higher during the third trimester. Even higher values of cardiac output are observed during uterine contractions in labor.
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