The leading cause of death worldwide.
11 topics · 12 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Heart: A History
Sandeep Jauhar · 2018
Traces cardiology from the first crude experiments in cardiac surgery to modern transplantation and devices, using the author's own practice as a…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
An Account of the Foxglove and Some of Its Medical Uses
William Withering · 1785
Documents systematic dosing trials of digitalis for dropsy, turning a folk remedy into the first evidence-based heart failure therapy.
+5 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
Bundle-Branch Block with Short P-R Interval in Healthy Young People Prone to Paroxysmal Tachycardia
Louis Wolff, John Parkinson & Paul D. White · 1930
Describes a distinct ECG pattern and its link to paroxysmal tachycardia, identifying what became known as Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.
+4 more at this level
12 works
Sandeep Jauhar
Traces cardiology from the first crude experiments in cardiac surgery to modern transplantation and devices, using the author's own practice as a cardiologist to show how much of the field's confidence is more recent than it looks.
William Withering
Documents systematic dosing trials of digitalis for dropsy, turning a folk remedy into the first evidence-based heart failure therapy.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Willem Einthoven
Explains how the string galvanometer made it possible to record the heart's electrical currents directly from the body surface, founding clinical electrocardiography.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Hasnain M. Dalal, Patrick Doherty & Rod S. Taylor
Reviews the trial evidence that structured cardiac rehabilitation combining exercise training, risk-factor management and psychosocial support reduces cardiovascular mortality and hospital readmission after a cardiac event.
link checked 17 Sept 2026National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Sets out a stepped diagnostic pathway using ambulatory or home blood-pressure monitoring to confirm a clinic reading before treating, and a drug sequence tailored to age and ethnicity.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Gregory A. Roth et al.
Shows cardiovascular deaths still rising in absolute terms while age-standardised rates fall, so the apparent success of prevention is being outpaced by population growth and ageing.
link checked 17 Sept 2026National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Sets out when the risk of a diseased heart valve outweighs the risk of intervening on it, shifting decisions from a fixed threshold to a heart-team judgement.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Louis Wolff, John Parkinson & Paul D. White
Describes a distinct ECG pattern and its link to paroxysmal tachycardia, identifying what became known as Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Inge Edler & Carl Hellmuth Hertz
Shows that pulsed ultrasound reflected off the moving heart wall can be recorded continuously, founding diagnostic echocardiography.
William B. Kannel et al.
Uses the Framingham cohort to show that elevated cholesterol, blood pressure and other measurable factors predict later coronary heart disease, establishing the risk-factor model of cardiovascular prevention.
Andreas R. Grüntzig, Åke Senning & Wilhelm E. Siegenthaler
Reports the first successful balloon dilation of a coronary artery, opening a nonsurgical route to relieving coronary obstruction.
Russell Ross
Argues that atherosclerosis is driven by a chronic inflammatory response to arterial injury rather than simple lipid accumulation.