Cardiac Exam

Excerpt

Evaluating a patient who presents with cardiac symptoms is a complex and multi-step process. In addition to obtaining a thorough history, a detailed cardiac examination is of paramount importance. In the era where medical technologies advance rapidly, one may think that savvy medical diagnostics such as echocardiography or cardiac CT-scan can replace a thorough cardiac exam readily. But one must remember, a combination of a comprehensive history and detailed cardiac exam can diagnose almost 80% of cardiac disease. The decline of physical exam skills in the new generation of physicians is a well-documented phenomenon. A good physical exam can save lives by rapid diagnosis and treatment as most of the diagnostic studies take time to result. Here we discuss the four pillars of the cardiac exam, i.e., history taking as well as inspection, palpation, and auscultation.