Arquivos brasileiros de cardiologia
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Arq. Bras. Cardiol. · Feb 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialDigital stethoscope as an innovative tool on the teaching of auscultatory skills.
Physical cardiovascular examination, particularly cardiac auscultation, is one of the most difficult clinical skills for students during their medical training. Studies suggest that the use of technologies such as digital stethoscope increase the accuracy of clinical examination, however, its impact on the teaching of cardiac auscultation for undergraduate students of medicine is not known. The objective is to demonstrate the usefulness of the digital stethoscope compared to traditional methods as a tool in the teaching of auscultatory skills. nterventional, longitudinal, controlled, unicenter and randomized study. ⋯ It is observed that, at the end of the course, there was a significantly greater improvement in the group that used the digital stethoscope (51.9%) compared to the group using the conventional stethoscope (29.5%). Short-term interventions for cardiac semiology teaching are able to contribute significantly to improving proficiency in the identification of heart sounds. The use of digital stethoscope proved to be a positive factor in teaching these skills.
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Arq. Bras. Cardiol. · Feb 2013
Practice GuidelineI guideline for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care -- Brazilian Society of Cardiology: executive summary.
Despite advances related to the prevention and treatment in the past few years, many lives are lost to cardiac arrest and cardiovascular events in general in Brazil every year. Basic Life Support involves cardiovascular emergency treatment mainly in the pre-hospital environment, with emphasis on the early recognition and delivery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers focused on high-quality thoracic compressions and rapid defibrillation by means of the implementation of public access-to-defibrillation programs. These aspects are of the utmost importance and may make the difference on the patient's outcomes, such as on hospital survival with no permanent neurological damage. ⋯ More recently, emphasis has been given to post-resuscitation care, with the purpose of reducing mortality by means of early recognition and treatment of the post-cardiac arrest syndrome. Therapeutic hypothermia has provided significant improvement of neurological damage and should be performed in comatose individuals post-cardiac arrest. For physicians working in the emergency department or intensive care unit, it is extremely important to improve the treatment given to these patients by means of specific training, thus giving them the chance of higher success and of better survival rates.