Cardiac auscultation is one of the most difficult clinical skills to acquire and competence in this area is extremely variable. This book features the visual representation of the cardiac cycle that helps readers understand the origin of the heart sounds. It includes questions and answers allowing readers to monitor their knowledge and progress.

This title is - British Medical Association Book Awards 2009 - Student Textbook Award Winner. Cardiac auscultation is one of the most difficult clinical skills to acquire and competence in this area is extremely variable. This short and accessible book comes with an interactive CD of heart sounds recorded from actual patients using the latest digital audio technology. It allows the user to listen to a recording and either eliminate or enhance the different components until they are confident that they have correctly identified the sounds in all phases of the cardiac cycle. This is particularly important for the recognition of diastolic sounds which are the most difficult to appreciate. There is no better way to confirm the presence of such a murmur than to have the facility to reduce or increase its intensity. This second edition uses the latest software and includes new features, such as the ability to slow the heart sounds down without altering their pitch. The layout of the CD has been improved to make it quicker to access. New questions and answers in both the book and the CD allow readers to monitor their knowledge and progress. The visual representation of the cardiac cycle also helps readers understand the origin of the heart sounds. This CD is suitable for use in all PC/Macs which have a tray-loading CD-ROM drive. It is not compatible with slot-loading CD-ROM drives.

Publisher:

Churchill Livingstone

ISBN:

9780443069079

Publication date:

July 2008

Additional format:

Contains Paperback and CD-ROM

Length:

235mm

Width:

187mm

Thickness:

9mm

Weight:

213g

Edition:

2nd Revised edition

Pages:

160

Illustrations:

Illustrated

This is an excellent combination of book and CD-Rom which covers the difficult to teach topic of cardiac auscultation. The recordings allow students to listen to real recordings of heart sounds in combination with the text and mini-tutorials on the CD. The CD is easy to use and the animated diagrams of the cardiac cycle are very clear.
BMA Book Awards 2009 - judges comments