❤️‍🩹Cardiology: Specialty of the Month

 ❤️‍🩹Cardiology: Specialty of the Month

Introduction

Did you know that there are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body — enough to wrap around the Earth more than twice? For the specialty of the month for January, I’ll be diving into cardiology! I will be covering the basics of cardiology, exploring the career lifestyles and responsibilities of a cardiologist and perfusionist, looking at some interesting facts about the heart, and wrapping it up with some of my personal thoughts. Let’s get started!

What is Cardiology?

Cardiology is the branch of medicine that deals with diseases and abnormalities of the heart. Despite it being such a small organ (roughly the size of two fists), there’s a lot that goes into learning about it. It’s one of the most important organs in the body because it pumps blood and keeps you alive. If your heart stops beating, you’ll be unconscious within several seconds.

Cardiology is a vast field, with many subspecialties, such as Interventional Cardiology, Electrophysiology, Cardiovascular Imaging, and several others. Cardiology isn’t primarily surgical, but it involves both hands-on procedures and patient care. There are several jobs related to cardiology, the primary one being a cardiologist.

Cardiologist Career Overview

Cardiologists have many important responsibilities, ranging from checking on patients to dealing with a sudden heart attack. They treat common heart issues, such as heart attacks, myocardial infarctions, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats), and many more. Sometimes, there might be false alarms in the emergency room that aren’t serious, such as mild chest pain that turns out to be nothing.

Cardiologists run both invasive (going inside the body) and non-invasive (outside the body) tests on patients. Some of them include:

Invasive

• Coronary Angiography

• Catheterization

• Electrophysiology

Non-Invasive

• ECGs (electrocardiograms)

• Echocardiograms

• CTs (Computed Tomography) and MRIs

To become a cardiologist, you first complete a bachelor’s degree (4 years), preferably in a health science. You then attend medical school, followed by a 3-year internal medicine residency. After that, you would subspecialize in a 3-year cardiology fellowship. If you wanted to specialize further, there would be an extra year or two of residency in that subspecialty. In total, that would be 14 years of school without a specialty, and 15 or 16 years with a subspecialty. Cardiology is one of the most competitive specialties in the medical field, so you would need a strong academic record to get into the program. It’s good to know what you’re getting into before deciding on it as a career! Another career related to cardiology is a perfusionist, who works closely with cardiologists during surgery.

Perfusionist Career Spotlight

A perfusionist is a job in the field of cardiology, but the responsibilities are less varied than those of a cardiologist. The primary job of a perfusionist is to operate the heart-lung machine, which takes over the role of a patient’s heart while they are undergoing cardiovascular surgery. They are also in charge of machines related to the heart, such as building CPB circuits, maintaining vitals, and maintaining sterility in the machines they operate. In terms of lifestyle, perfusionists usually live on call (meaning they have to be available to come in on short notice). This is because about 30% of emergency room admissions are heart-related, so perfusionists have to be ready to spring into action very quickly. While the pay is competitive in the medical field, there are also several cons to being a perfusionist. They have to live very close to a cardiac center or hospital so that they are easily accessible. It can make it hard to have a healthy work-life balance because they must be ready to work at all times. Like any other medical career, perfusionists also witness lots of death and illness, which can take a mental toll. However, being a perfusionist can be extremely rewarding if you enjoy your work.

Interesting Facts / Extras

While doing my research on cardiology, I learned a lot of interesting facts!

• The human heart beats approximately 100,000 times a day to pump roughly 2,000 gallons of blood.

• The heart works twice as hard as a sprinter’s leg muscles.

• A woman’s heart beats faster than a man’s; about 8 times more per minute on average.

• Heart attacks are most common on Monday mornings and during the Christmas/New Year’s period.

Personal Reflection

At the end of this post, I’m still not sure whether I want to do cardiology. The cardiovascular system and heart are very interesting, and there are a lot of details to learn about it. It’s an extremely complex and fascinating organ, with many jobs available in that field. However, I’m not sure if I would enjoy focusing on only one organ or system, because I think it would be more interesting to explore the entire body and its functions.

In conclusion, while I’m not sure about cardiology as a career path, I learned a lot of interesting things while researching, which taught me a lot! Hopefully you found it captivating as well, and if you have any questions or suggestions for next month’s specialty, please let me know by emailing me at aaliya.rajgor99@gmail.com!

Glossary of Medical Terms

Arrhythmia
An irregular heartbeat, where the heart may beat too fast, too slow, or unevenly.

Cardiology
The branch of medicine that focuses on diseases and conditions of the heart.

Catheterization
A medical procedure in which a thin tube (catheter) is inserted into a blood vessel or the heart to diagnose or treat heart conditions.

Computed Tomography (CT)
A non-invasive imaging test that uses X-rays to create detailed cross-sectional images of the body.

Coronary Angiography
An invasive imaging test that uses dye and X-rays to visualize blood flow in the heart’s arteries.

CPB Circuit (Cardiopulmonary Bypass Circuit)
A system of tubing and machines that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs during cardiac surgery.

ECG / EKG (Electrocardiogram)
A non-invasive test that records the electrical activity of the heart.

Echocardiogram
A non-invasive ultrasound test that creates images of the heart using sound waves.

Electrophysiology
A cardiology subspecialty that focuses on the heart’s electrical system and rhythm disorders.

Hyperlipidemia
A condition involving high levels of fats, such as cholesterol, in the blood.

Hypertension
High blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Interventional Cardiology
A cardiology subspecialty that uses minimally invasive procedures to diagnose and treat heart conditions.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
A non-invasive imaging technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed images of organs and tissues.

Myocardial Infarction
The medical term for a heart attack, caused by reduced blood flow to the heart muscle.

Non-Invasive Test
A medical test that does not require entering the body, such as imaging or heart monitoring.

Subspecialty
A more focused area of training within a broader medical specialty.