These are twenty-four autobiographical story-essays, witty, vulnerable, and wise, about growing up part of a puzzled and unassimilated Orthodox Jewish family in a Michigan small-town in the 1930s and '40s and about the wider world of marriage, children, teaching and writing after that rich beginning.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a screening tool called the Listing of Impairments to identify claimants who are so severely impaired that they cannot work at all and thus immediately qualify for benefits. In this report, the IOM makes several recommendations for improving SSA's capacity to determine disability benefits more quickly and efficiently using the Listings.

Each year, over 250,000 heart valve repair and heart valve replacement operations are performed for conditions including stenosis, prolapse, insufficiency, aneurysm, Tetralogy of Fallot and regurgitation. However, most patients and caregivers surveyed felt their expectations were mismanaged - both before and after surgery. The Patient's Guide to Heart Valve Surgery was written by Adam Pick, a double heart valve surgery patient, to address this troubling issue and prepare the patient and caregiver for the challenges and opportunities of valve surgery - from diagnosis through recovery.

One of the most time-consuming tasks in clinical medicine is seeking the opinions of specialist colleagues. There is a pressure not only to make referrals appropriate but also to summarize the case in the language of the specialist. This book explains basic physiologic and pathophysiologic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease in a straightforward manner, gives guidelines as to when referral is appropriate, and, uniquely, explains what the specialist is likely to do. It is ideal for any hospital doctor, generalist, or even senior medical student who may need a cardiology opinion, or for that ma.

Part of the Monographs in Cardiac Surgery Series – Introducing ‘basic science into the cardiac operating room’. Fast systematic review of small areas of cardiac surgery including up-to-date information. This will allow more rapid publication than the alternative cardiac surgery ‘tomes’. This entry into the series will provide readers with a complete review of the current understanding in mitral valve surgery and include extensive details on the diagnosis and surgical management of patients with mitral valve disease.

Ideal for cardiologists who need to keep abreast of rapidly changing scientific foundations, clinical research results, and evidence-based medicine, Braunwald’s Heart Disease is your indispensable source for definitive, state-of-the-art answers on every aspect of contemporary cardiology, helping you apply the most recent knowledge in personalized medicine, imaging techniques, pharmacology, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, and much more! Practice with confidence and overcome your toughest challenges with advice from the top minds in cardiology today, who synthesize the entire state of current knowledge and summarize all of the most recent ACC/AHA practice guidelines. Locate the answers you need fast thanks to a user-friendly, full-color design with more than 1,200 color illustrations. Learn from leading international experts, including 53 new authors. Explore brand-new chapters, such as Principles of Cardiovascular Genetics and Biomarkers, Proteomics, Metabolomics, and Personalized Medicine. Access new and updated guidelines covering Diseases of the Aorta, Peripheral Artery Diseases, Diabetes and the Cardiovascular System, Heart Failure, and Valvular Heart Disease. Stay abreast of the latest diagnostic and imaging techniques and modalities, such as three-dimensional echocardiography, speckle tracking, tissue Doppler, computed tomography, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Consult this title on your favorite e-reader, conduct rapid searches, and adjust font sizes for optimal readability.

2014 BMA Medical Book Awards Highly Commended in Cardiology category! Apply the latest percutaneous techniques with the practical, highly illustrated Interventional Procedures for Structural Heart Disease. This brand-new medical reference book presents full-color images, numerous tables, and invaluable clinical pearls to help you utilize today's hottest techniques and technologies for each disease, so you can offer your patients the most desirable outcomes possible. - Master today's hottest percutaneous procedures for structural heart disease as perfected by experts from around the world, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), percutaneous paravalvular leak closure, transcatheter mitral valve interventions, a wide variety of adult congenital cardiovascular defect interventions, and more. - Grasp the specific knowledge you will need for success in a variety of clinical scenarios, as well as the patient selection criteria for each invasive procedure. - Make informed, evidence-based decisions with the latest clinical trial results and evidence integrated into each chapter. - Visualize the newest techniques and technologies more clearly through a full-color design featuring illustrations, tables, clinical pearls, complications, and current evidence boxes. - Seamlessly search the full text online at Expert Consult.

TRANSCATHETER MITRAL VALVE THERAPIES An essential survey of the advancing field of transcatheter mitral valve repair and replacement Minimally invasive transcatheter therapies have revolutionized the treatment of structural heart disease. Greatly improving outcomes for higher-risk patients, transcatheter aortic valve replacement is now established as a safe and effective alternative to invasive surgery. The mitral valve, however, poses further challenges. Contending with one of the heat’s most anatomically and pathologically complex components, practitioners and engineers have yet to perfect a stream-lined, widely deliverable therapy—though they are getting closer and closer to this goal. Transcatheter Mitral Valve Therapies provides a far-reaching survey of the field of mitral interventions in its current state. Highlighting the stumbling blocks preventing transcatheter mitral valve replacement’s widespread adoption, the book’s international group of contributors discuss the improvements to be made in repair and replacement procedures, as well as the adjunctive use of imaging and pharmacologic therapies. This ground-breaking text: Provides detailed explanations of transcatheter repair, transcatheter replacement, and adjunctive procedures Features chapters on the use of imaging to aid in patient selection, procedure planning, and intra-operative guidance Discusses the importance of minimally invasive approaches for mitral valve repair Examines anticoagulation following transcatheter mitral valve interventions Outlines the possible future of transcatheter mitral valve therapy Transcatheter Mitral Valve Therapies is an important, up-to-date resource for interventional cardiologists, as well as all clinical researchers and practitioners seeking information on this vital and developing treatment.

The notion that drugs can induce valvular heart disease (VHD) has occurred since the sixties and has received a lot of attention in recent years. Overstimulation of the serotonin 2B receptor (5-HT2B) leads to valvular fibroblast proliferation and thickening of the valvular leaflets with reduced mobility and regurgitation as a consequence. This new book focuses on different aspects of this distinct kind of valvulopathy including pathophysiology of drug-induced VHD, histopathological and echocardiographic characteristics, drugs associated with VHD, the influence of cumulative drug dose and risk factors and others.

The book contains a series of core auscultation “lessons”. All are case based and describe auscultation as it relates to a patient and in terms of the gold standard for interpretation of heart sounds. Auscultation is the term for listening to the internal sounds of the body, usually using a stethoscope. It is performed for the purposes of examining the circulatory system and respiratory system (heart sounds and breath sounds). As a topic it is one of the oldest in cardiology but its utility should never be underestimated. In this era of hugely expensive imaging tests, auscultation is a cornerstone of efficient diagnosis and therefore needs a fresh look. The core content of this book describes the search for diagnostic clues within patients’ heart sounds and as such this book provides superb practical advice in the form of a series of clinical pearls reflecting what accurate diagnosis with auscultation can mean to patient prognosis and outcome. This often subtle but ultimately simple subject often produces complex results and these must be considered in light of modern next-level diagnostic methods and patient management.