Preface

The optimal management of patients with cardiac disease warrants a multifaceted approach undertaken in harmony. The recent decades have witnessed major advances in methods for monitoring and interventions aiming to improve outcomes in this outstanding cause of death worldwide. Other than technological improvements, the medical community is aware that this task can only be achieved via a mutual collaboration of doctors in the pre-hospital phase, hospital emergency departments, intensive care units, social studies, public health professionals, and bystanders.

For nearly a year, our lives have changed like never before. The current WHO clinical guide documents cite that ‘there is no current evidence to recommend any specific anti-COVID-19 treatment for patients with confirmed COVID-19’.

In order to overcome the pandemic with minimized global losses, the scientific community, healthcare facilities, professional organizations, chambers, and state institutions should work in coordination and unison. Most importantly, only a coordinated approach with all targeted masses reached via awareness programmes and campaigns can create a real difference in this pandemic era.

This project, of the book ‘Cardiac Care and COVID-19: Perspectives in Medical Practice’ is intended to encompass the advancements regarding diagnoses and treatment modalities for cardiac diseases in general and emergency cardiac conditions to be more specific, with respect to pandemic conditions. Apart from up-to-date descriptions of the problem and delineation of management principles, case examples were also used to highlight complex issues for a concrete understanding of the medical practitioner.

The ultimate objective is to provide a reference source with up-to-date information on the management of cardiac emergencies and resuscitation in the COVID-19 era. We aim to conduct a brief overview of epidemiological features of cardiac emergencies and their sociodemographic factors, measures to be taken for prevention, together with diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to pursue in the pandemic era.