心脏科
Cardiology
Cardiology evaluates symptoms that may be cardiac in origin, quantifies cardiovascular risk, and manages established heart disease over the long term.
A substantial part of cardiological practice is determining whether a symptom — breathlessness, chest discomfort, palpitation — is cardiac at all. That question is answered by history and examination first, with testing chosen to address a specific clinical question rather than applied as a panel.
Risk assessment is the other half of the discipline. Blood pressure, lipids, family history, and metabolic factors are read together to estimate risk over years, and the resulting plan is largely one of sustained management rather than intervention.
For patients with established cardiac disease, the work is continuity: medication adjustment, monitoring, and clear thresholds for when something has changed enough to warrant re-evaluation.
Conditions commonly evaluated
- Hypertension and resistant hypertension
- Lipid disorders and cardiovascular risk assessment
- Chest pain and suspected coronary disease
- Palpitation and arrhythmia including atrial fibrillation
- Heart failure
- Valvular heart disease
- Cardiac murmurs identified on examination
- Preoperative cardiovascular assessment
Care provided
- Cardiovascular consultation and risk assessment
- Non-invasive cardiac evaluation
- Long-term management of hypertension and lipid disorders
- Arrhythmia assessment and anticoagulation decisions
- Heart failure management
- Preoperative cardiac clearance
At a first visit
- Bring prior electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, stress tests, and any cardiac catheterisation reports — the actual reports, not only a summary.
- A record of home blood pressure readings, if you take them, is genuinely useful. Bring the readings rather than an average.
- Bring a complete medication list, including doses, and note anything you have stopped taking and why.
Working with other departments
Cardiology and internal medicine share responsibility for cardiovascular risk over the long term. Anticoagulation decisions are made with hematology where the picture is complex, and PM&R contributes where activity tolerance is a limiting factor.