Cardiology! HELP!

xrsm002

xrsm002

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I am bout to start cardiology on Tuesday, however I can never remember the blood flow through the heart, anyone know of any pneumonics to help me remember it? Also any advice on some good ways to study I was thinking making flashcards with the arrythmias on them and putting there everywhere in my house..lol. I am one of the few students that actually stay's after class to get extra help especially if I dont' understand something. Which my instructor said he noticed I did and said he was impressed I did that.
 
xrsm002 said:
I am bout to start cardiology on Tuesday, however I can never remember the blood flow through the heart, anyone know of any pneumonics to help me remember it?
Click to expand...

[snark] I fail to see how compressed air is important here. [/snark]

Atrium->ventricle->artery->vein->atrium->ventricle->artery->vein->repeat.

Right side->lungs (pulmonary circuit)->Left side->systemic->repeat.

"side" is atrium and ventricle.

Artery = blood leaving the heart. Vein (in most cases) blood going to the heart.
 
Understand the blood flow through the heart before you move on to rhythms. That is the most basic and vital component. You can't understand what you are reading on a 12-lead if you don't get that simple concept down.
Make flash cards and check them every chance you get. Draw, label, and map the heart over and over until it becomes redundant. Once you get that down, then move on to basic rhythms (which flash cards are also good for)
 
i just finished cardiology, and the thing that threw me off the most at first was the different types of blocks, so knowing those from the get go will definitely help though, blood flow through the heart is important but also knowing what each wave represents will help you identify problems out in the field
 
Toilet Paper My ***- the order of blood through the heart

T-tricuspid valve
P-pulmonary valve
M-mitral valve
A-aortic valve
 
I found "The blood went right to the lungs, then left for the body" useful to remember which side of the heart sent blood where.
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upctPUa6RhA&feature=player_embedded[/YOUTUBE]
 
Along with TPMA for valves I learned Tiny People Bite Ankles. Tricuspid, Pulmonary, Bicuspid(Mitral), Aortic.
 
Without any mnemonics, you could probably draw and label the heart with arrows indicating blood flow.

http://69.17.55.5/tmp/heart.jpg
http://69.17.55.5/tmp/heart.avi

Above is a video of me drawing it as fast as I can, and the picture is the end result because my camera won't allow me to record longer than a minute if I want to send the video (I also forgot to label pulmonary veins/too lazy to take another picture).

As for EKGs, I recommend reading Dubin's Rapid Interpretation of EKGs. It makes EKGs seem like a coloring book/gluing macaroni to paper. Rapid Interpretation lacks information on the depolarization-repolarization cycle, but you could look that up.

http://books.google.com/books?id=mG...-repolarization cycle phase 0 1 2 3 4&f=false

I looked it up for you. ^_^

Really the best thing to do for the cardiology section is to practice, practice, and practice. Using the information you have, try to fill in the blanks on information you don't have. When you learn ACLS, think about how you'd treat the rhythm. When you do 12-leads, look out for STE-mimics.

ems12lead.com which is maintain by TomB (another member here) is also another great resource, and you could practice some daily/weekly strips with his input on the strip later.
 
Like Aprz said it's all about practice.

We analyzed ~800 rhythms for hw during our cardiology section. Talk about tedious, but it worked!
 
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