Coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States and other industrialized nations. Acute myocardial infarction accounts for a majority of these deaths, approaching 750,000 yearly. Thrombolytic therapy has revolutionized the treatment of myocardial infarction, saving lives to a greater extent than any treatment developed to date. The identification of patients best suited for thrombolytic therapy has been a challenging task, as has the ideal adjuvant strategy. Further, the noninvasic diagnosis of treatment successes and failures, as well as the expeditious triaging of patients requiring mechanical/surgical revascularization have been difficult to define, but progress has been made recently. The emergence of information vital for patient care has appeared at an extraordinary pace, with hundreds of articles being published yearly. Unfortunately, a resource devoted to the area of thrombolysis does not exist, making the dissemination of information to physicians, scientists and health care providers problematic. The Modern Era of Coronary Thrombolysis is designed to bring the medical and scientific communities up to date. It will serve as a foundation for future investigation, as well as a resource which can be referred to for many years to come.

With the changes in the health care system, medical practitioners of many types are being called on to manage thrombolytic problems previously handled exclusively by the cardiology specialist. Available publications have focused on providing comprehensive information that is subject to unlimited and varied interpretation. This manual will be designed for practicing clinicians and clinicians in training, including emergency room physicians, cardiologists, hematologists, and advanced practice nurses. It will provide not only vital conceptual information on managing thrombolytic therapy, but the means to apply it to everyday decision-making and patient care. Focusing on management guidelines and critical pathways, the volume will stress practicality, providing information in tabular and algorithm format where appropriate.

Filling a gap in the literature, this reference comprehensively examines recent progress in the clinical pharmacology, investigation, and therapy of cardiovascular disease-providing expertly authored chapters that range from studies of disease mechanisms to new treatment strategies and advances in drug and device development.

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Product Description: Special Topic Issue: Cardiology 1995, Vol. 86, No. 4