INTRODUCTION
MEDICAL knowledge progresses by small steps, but sudden technological and therapeutic advances produce a quantum leap in thinking. An existing paradigm is exhausted and a new conceptual framework emerges.
This article describes the evolution of successive paradigms in cardiology: each has revolutionized practice.
Diagnostic algorithms and treatment protocols in the 1960s have been replaced by new paradigms in the 1990s. These now form the basis of our everyday practice, and the old ones are part of history.
Medical practice at any time is contained within a working framework or paradigm. Existing factual and practical knowledge fits into this scheme. It is modified by small advances in research and allows the practitioner to understand, solve, and treat the patient's problems. Further research experience gently changes the existing conceptual framework until the operating paradigm is exhausted and no longer suitable. New findings and often a new technology induce a knowledge-based revolution: this . . . [Full Text of this Article]
WATCHFUL EXPECTANCY: THE ERA OF THE STOICS
INTENSIVE CORONARY CARE WITH CAREFUL ARRHYTHMIA MONITORING: THE HEART THAT IS TOO GOOD TO DIE
CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS SURGERY: NEW TUBES FOR OLD
CORONARY ANGIOGRAPHY: THE ROARING 70s
CARDIAC IMAGING: LOOKING INSIDE THE HEART
THROMBOLYSIS IN ACUTE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION SAVES IRREPLACEABLE HEART MUSCLE
PERCUTANEOUS TRANSLUMINAL CORONARY ANGIOPLASTY: STRETCH, SQUEEZE, CRACK, OR SCAFFOLD THE ARTERY
ARRHYTHMIAS ARE BEING CONQUERED
OUT-OF-HOSPITAL CARE
NEW TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN MEDICAL AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY PREVENTION
PATIENTS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THEIR DISEASE: THE PATIENTS' CHARTER
NEW HEARTS FOR OLD
THE NEW STATISTICAL PROBABILITIES
COST-EFFECTIVENESS AND COST CONTAINMENT: IS IT REALLY WORTHWHILE?
THE GERIATRIC CARDIAC PATIENT: THE NEW GERONTOCRACY
WHEN BODY AND SOUL SEPARATE
CONCLUSIONS
