Statins: the risks and statistics

‘If clinicians are going to recommend statins to their patients, then their duty of care must extend to ensuring that the nature of absolute risk and relative risk is explained’ .

Smoking cessation: why is it a persistent problem in patients with peripheral artery disease?

NICE (2021) recommends that all patients who actively smoke should receive smoking cessation advice at each clinical assessment. Comprehensive smoking cessation programmes have been shown to be more...

The vascular system and associated disorders

Blood vessels are often described as channels that carry blood throughout the body, forming a closed circuit that begins and ends at the heart. Blood travels through the blood vessels following a...

Gender differences in acute care treatments for cardiovascular diseases

A narrative review methodology was used following the standards of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement (Page et al, 2021). A search of two...

Pulsed ventricular tachycardia: a case study

Max, a 65-year-old gentleman with no prior past medical history, had been admitted to the emergency department as a ‘resus pre-alert’ at the beginning of this admission 1 week previously. Ambulance...

Non-invasive and contemporaneous cardiac imaging in heart failure

Heart failure is a complex multifactorial syndrome with various possible underlying causes. Most patients will initially present to primary care with signs and symptoms of heart failure, such as...

The cardiovascular system and associated disorders

The heart is located near the midline of the thoracic cavity, commonly known as the mediastinum, and rests on the diaphragm (Cook et al, 2021). The mediastinum is the space in the centre of the thorax...

Developing the Heart Failure Specialist Nurse Competency Framework

In recent years, globally, the profile of the nursing profession has increased and with it the demand for nurses to work at advanced levels of nursing practice, with such roles requiring a range of...

Cardiovascular disease risk in rheumatoid arthritis

In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, regular screening and management of hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes and obesity are vital to mitigate cardiovascular risk. Other variables, such as...

Critical thinking and diagnostic reasoning of the heart and cardiovascular system

Chest pain is a common complaint, comprising up to 25% of emergency department attendances (Byrne, 2014). Not all of these will have a cardiac complaint; however, it is crucial to recognise important...

A novel heart failure care pathway developed during the pandemic

Working to reduce the problem of thromboembolism in pregnant women