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Cardiac arrhythmias are common and can be as simple as extra beats or as deadly as ventricular fibrillation. The leading cause of death in adults in the United States is sudden cardiac death, which has accounted for over 460,000 fatalities in 1999. There have been tremendous advances in our ability to diagnose and treat a variety of cardiac arrhythmias, as well as to prevent sudden death. Antiarrhythmic drugs have changed dramatically over the past 10 to 15 years, with newer agents replacing old standards such as quinidine. Intracardiac catheter ablation techniques have advanced to the point that they are often first-line therapy for many arrhythmias. Implantable defibrillators save lives as has been demonstrated in multiple randomized clinical trials. Pacemakers not only maintain a stable heart rate but now can yield important diagnostic information as well as respond to a patient’s metabolic needs to increase heart rate. Finally, cardiac resynchronization therapy (pacing the right and left ventricle simultaneously) is an exciting new area of research with new data to support remarkable alleviation of heart failure symptoms in selected patients. With these advances and new data have come new national guidelines on how to treat a variety of rhythm disorders. Thus, these advances need to be selectively applied to patients and physicians will need an update in data to know when each one is appropriate for a particular patient.
The advances in diagnostic and therapeutic methods for patients with cardiac arrhythmias, as well as the intersection of heart failure and arrhythmias, allows an opportune time for The Care Group to present a symposium dedicated to the management of various patient groups with cardiac arrhythmias. The Care Group has been committed to education on all levels from our training program for fellows, to referring physicians, and other health care professionals. The overall goal of this symposium is to update the practicing physician in the various advances in diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, using both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic methods and the importance of interaction of management of patients with heart failure and arrhythmias.
Physicians, nurses, pharmacists and health professionals interested in arrhythmias and heart failure.
Morning and afternoon didactic with interactive panel discussion and case studies.
Audience will fill out course evaluation which will be tallied and reviewed for future symposiums.
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