The Arrhythmic Patient in the Emergency Department

This book is a practical guide to the differential diagnosis and treatment of patients presenting in the Emergency Department with syncope or arrhythmias, including bradyarrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, narrow and wide QRS tachycardias. In addition, clear advice is provided on the management of patients with cardiac devices and possible dysfunction, electrical storm, or a requirement for urgent surgery. For each topic, a literature review of epidemiology, physiopathology, differential diagnosis, and treatment is conducted. Furthermore, practical suggestions are offered for short-term management, e.g., regarding the decision on when and where to hospitalize the patient; these proposals do not replace but rather summarize or integrate the current guidelines. The book is designed both for emergency physicians and cardiologists, who will be the first to evaluate and treat patients with arrhythmias or potentially arrhythmic problems in the emergency setting. It will also be a useful textbook for students and residents in Cardiology and Emergency Medicine.

    ​Offers a comprehensive analysis of the management of patients with syncope, arrhythmias, or arrhythmia-related problems who present in the Emergency Department
    Provides practical suggestions and suggests algorithms for the diagnosis and prompt management of patients with possible pacemaker malfunction or implantable cardiac defibrillator and electrical storm 
    Describes the management of patients with cardiac devices who need urgent surgery

Massimo Zecchin got his degree in Medicine in 1991 and has been working in the Cardiovascular Department of Cardiology of Trieste (Italy) since 1995. Since 2002 he has been Chief of Electrophysiology at the same hospital. From 2012 to 2014 he was Secretary of the Italian Arrhythmologic Association (Associazione Italiana di Aritmologia e Cardiostimolazione). At present he is member of the “Area Aritmie” of the National Cardiology Society (Associazione Nazionale Medici Cardiologi Ospedalieri) and co-chairman of the Italian Registry of Pacemakers, Defibrillators and Loop Recorders. His clinical activities and fields of research mainly focus on clinical arrhythmology and electrophysiology and sudden death prevention; he is author of more than 150 publications and reviewer of several national and international journals.

Gianfranco Sinagra, Full Professor of Cardiology at University of Trieste,  is Director of the Cardiovascular Department of the University Hospital Ospedali Riuniti in Trieste, Italy, since 1999. He attended courses at the St George’s Hospital of London (1989), and the Wallenberg Laboratory for Cardiovascular Research of the Sahlgrenska Hospital, Gothenburg University, Sweden (1991 and 1993). He is author of more than 400 publications as articles, chapters, and books. Beside the intense clinical activity, the research avenues he pursues are mainly focused on the study of heart failure, cardiomyopathies, histology and morphology of endomyocardial biopsy, and molecular cardiology. He is component of the End Point Clinical Event Committee of the ValHeFT Trial (N:Engl J Med 2001; 345:1667), coordinated by the Veterans Affairs- USA web, ANMCO and Mario Negri Pharmacological Research Institute of Milan. He is fellow of the European Society of Cardiology. He is main researcher since 2003 of the project COMIRB // 99-177 14.05.2003 “Identification of a Gene for Autosomal Dominant Dilated Cardiomyopathy on Chromosome 9”, granted by the National Institute of Health-USA, in cooperation with the Health Science Centre, University of Colorado, Denver. With Springer he published “Genetic Cardiomyopathies” (2013) and “Clinical Echocardiography and Other Imaging Techniques in Cardiomyopathies” (2014).