Wolfgang Kruger – författare

Acute heart failure is a potentially life threatening situation where correct, rapid therapy can have a life saving impact. In this rapidly changing area of medicine this text aims to bring the latest understanding of the pathophysiology together with a practical guide to diagnosis and management using a thoroughly evidence based approach. This will appeal to a wide audience of health care professionals who will treat patients with acute heart failure, including doctors, medical students, nurses, and other professionals in the Emergency Department, General Internal Medicine, Anaesthetics, Cardiology (Medicine and Surgery) and Critical Care settings. It may be used as an evidence based guide for the junior practitioner or as an aide-memoire for the more senior.

Always keeping the underlying pathophysiology at the forefront of the discussion, the reader is encouraged to understand the aetiology of the acute situation and how to direct management in order to correct the abnormal physiology. Each chapter is heavily referenced allowing the reader to easily refer to the original experimental studies and pursue topics in more detail if required. This text is a valuable addition to any practitioner who treats patients with acute heart failure and wants a deeper understanding of the condition.

Acute heart failure is a potentially life threatening situation where correct, rapid therapy can save lives. Information from the latest research and studies has been used to update this text to bring the latest understanding of the pathophysiology together with a practical guide to diagnosis and management using an evidenced based approach.

Since the first edition of Acute Heart Failure, this research has brought to light three important issues to be integrated into a second edition. First, the so-called “vascular heart failure” has been identified as a common and decisive mechanism provoking acute heart failure due to the coupling and interaction between the heart (right and left heart) and the large vessel systems (aorta and pulmonary artery). Second, the interaction and cross-talk between heart and kidneys, the so-called ‘cardiorenal syndrome’ has been identified as another feature of acute heart failure syndromes. Third, we have new knowledge and updated points of views about the development of pulmonary hypertension in patients suffering from heart failure, the group 2 of the classification system of pulmonary hypertension. These are all covered in this second edition.

This revision to a seminal text is a valuable addition to any practitioner who treats patients with acute heart failure and wants a deeper understanding of the condition.

This book provides a detailed review of state of the art knowledge on critical care topics as well as the latest research findings. It covers the core aspects in excellent detail, but is not so comprehensive as to make its daily use unfeasible. For each condition considered, discussion of the pathophysiology is integrated with observations on diagnosis and treatment in order to allow a deeper understanding. The book is scientifically based, with extensive references to published research. This will allow readers to investigate their individual interests further and will enable physicians to justify measures by providing a coherent, evidence-based strategy and relevant citations where needed. Core Knowledge in Critical Care Medicine will appeal to experienced practitioners as an aide-mémoire, but will also be of great value to a wide range of more junior staff wishing to complement their background knowledge with important facts applicable to everyday practice.