The AMSA International x AMBOSS Lecture Series – Cardiology and Respiratory Block was held on 10 April 2021. Three topics were covered under this session – “Arrhythmias, Hypertension, and Heart Failure.” The session was opened by Cher Pin So, the Director of Marketing and Sponsorship 2020/2021 and the first topic, “Arrhythmias” was delivered by Koravich Lorlowhakarn, a 5th-year medical student from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. It was attended by over eighty participants from various AMSA International chapters and lasted for about two hours from 16:20 (GMT+8) via Zoom meeting.
The first half of the session covered multiple topics like electrocardiogram (ECG) and its application in detecting arrhythmias, how to read ECGs, tachycardia, bradycardia, Wolff- Parkinson White Syndrome, inter-nodal block, etc. in detail. The participants were enthusiastic to respond to the speaker’s questions and actively participated in ECG reading activities.
The physiology, onset, rhythm, changes in P wave and QRS complex changes (ECG changes) of multiple conditions like sinus tachycardia, atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation, atrial tachycardia, junctional tachycardia, atrioventricular re-entry tachycardia (AVRT), and AV nodal re-entry tachycardia (AVNRT) were explained in detail using flowcharts, diagrams, and notes by AMBOSS. After every session, the speaker asked the participants to read the ECG and identify the condition or calculate the heart rate. This was followed by a video of Wolff- Parkinson pattern and syndrome by AMBOSS that cleared these concepts, especially re-entry circuit, ECG correlation, and treatment of the conditions. The last part of the first topic was Mobitz Type I and II internodal blocks.
This session was highly appreciated by the participants and we received amazing feedback for the same. We were thankful to the speaker for their method of presentation and enthusiasm in clarifying the doubts of the participants.
The lecture of Topic 2 discussed the topic “Hypertension and Heart Failure” delivered by Tutor Vedant Shukla, a Junior Doctor from Sir JJ Group of Hospital, Mumbai, India.
The whole session highlighted the importance of a comprehensive and holistic approach to diagnose hypertension and heart failure as a medical practitioner. It thoroughly covered hypertension and heart failure from their definition, epidemiology, pathophysiology, criteria diagnosis, signs and symptoms, to the management of both diseases.
There are several important points while taking history to notice:
- Age, since older people above 40 years of age have an increased risk;
- Sex, where epidemiologically, more men have cardiac condition than women; and
- Dietary history, where salt heavy diet could affect the onset of hypertension.
The main goal of treatment and management is to reduce the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events (e.g. CAD), stroke, and heart failure. The target of treatment is to lower blood pressure under 140/85 mmHg, while in diabetic and renal dysfunction patient, it is under 130/80 mmHg. First-line management includes lifestyle modification by cessation of smoking and alcohol consumption along with dietary modification to reduce salt intake, saturated fats, and incorporate high fibre diets. Pharmacological therapy is considered as the second-line management, including ACEI or ARBs, beta-blockers, calcium channel blocker, and diuretics. The mechanism of action, pharmacological properties, and an indication of each drug used as therapy and their interaction with each other were also explained.
The participants’ enthusiasm was relatively high. They were eager to be involved during the lecture session. Even though the question-and-answer session was very limited, a lot of participants tried to ask either by directly unmuting themselves or utilising the chatbox. The session was closed by Cher Pin So, the Director of Marketing and Sponsorship of AMSA International at 17:21 (GMT +8).
Written by:
Satria Angga Widitama
Ananya Bhasin
eNewsletter Editorial Board 2020/2021