Tag Archives: cardiac resynchronisation

Dr Paul Foley Introduction 2018 marks the 60-year anniversary of the first patient to receive an implantable battery-powered pacemaker.1 In fact, the earliest recorded description of pacing was in 1882, and now countless lives have been saved by pacemaker technology. Subsequent important developments include the development of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in 1980 and then, more recently, one of the most effective cardiac treatments, cardiac resynchronisation therapy, which was first described in 1984. Exciting and disruptive developments in pacing technology may, potentially, herald a sea change in practice, while historic

Introduction In many centres, patients stay overnight after their pacing procedure. Most would prefer to get home quicker, and reduced length of stay would result in healthcare savings. Various centres have reported high rates of patient satisfaction,1 and significant cost-savings with day-case pacing,2,3 although this practice is not widespread. A recent survey,4 revealed variation in practice across Europe with many centres routinely mandating a one or two night hospital stay. The safety of day-case pacing was described more than 25 years ago.5,6 Since then, the implant rates of both bradycardia (simple) and more complex devices (cardiac re

Editors: Zamorano JL, Bax J, Knuuti J, Sechtem U, Lancellotti P, Badano L Publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015 ISBN: 978-0-19-870334-1 Price: £115 The second edition of the ESC textbook of cardiovascular imaging is a compendium of imaging expertise. The list of contributors alone should be enough to guarantee that there is something to learn for most involved in cardiology imaging. The strengths are that it takes someone with a very limited knowledge of any of the individual modalities and walks them through the basics of how images are formed, through to making advanced diagnostic decisions. Some sections manage to seamlessly