The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a screening tool called the Listing of Impairments to identify claimants who are so severely impaired that they cannot work at all and thus immediately qualify for benefits. In this report, the IOM makes several recommendations for improving SSA's capacity to determine disability benefits more quickly and efficiently using the Listings.

Due to population aging, calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) has become the most common heart valve disease in Western countries. No therapies exist to slow this disease progression, and surgical valve replacement is the only effective treatment. Calcific Aortic Valve Disease covers the contemporary understanding of basic valve biology and the mechanisms of CAVD, provides novel insights into the genetics, proteomics, and metabolomics of CAVD, depicts new strategies in heart valve tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, and explores current treatment approaches. As we are on the verge of understanding the mechanisms of CAVD, we hope that this book will enable readers to comprehend our current knowledge and focus on the possibility of preventing disease progression in the future.

As the most common cardiac valve disease, aortic stenosis is frequently encountered by healthcare providers in clinical practice. It may be suspected from a cardiac murmur found at a routine clinical exam, signs on ECG, heart failure, or an episode of syncope or arrhythmia. Echocardiography as well as other imaging tools provide information about the degree of severity of the stenosis. Nevertheless, careful judgement of potential symptoms is crucial. When it comes to treatment, a catheter-based approach has emerged as the preferred option in many cases, even though open-chest surgery is still standard treatment. Regardless of treatment modality, a multidisciplinary team is needed to provide optimal management of patients with aortic stenosis. This book provides all the necessary information on aortic stenosis, including etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.

An illustrated guide for anesthesia providers for congenital heart disease patients, with a focus on non-cardiac operating room settings.

One of the most time-consuming tasks in clinical medicine is seeking the opinions of specialist colleagues. There is a pressure not only to make referrals appropriate but also to summarize the case in the language of the specialist. This book explains basic physiologic and pathophysiologic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease in a straightforward manner, gives guidelines as to when referral is appropriate, and, uniquely, explains what the specialist is likely to do. It is ideal for any hospital doctor, generalist, or even senior medical student who may need a cardiology opinion, or for that ma.

The book contains a series of core auscultation “lessons”. All are case based and describe auscultation as it relates to a patient and in terms of the gold standard for interpretation of heart sounds. Auscultation is the term for listening to the internal sounds of the body, usually using a stethoscope. It is performed for the purposes of examining the circulatory system and respiratory system (heart sounds and breath sounds). As a topic it is one of the oldest in cardiology but its utility should never be underestimated. In this era of hugely expensive imaging tests, auscultation is a cornerstone of efficient diagnosis and therefore needs a fresh look. The core content of this book describes the search for diagnostic clues within patients’ heart sounds and as such this book provides superb practical advice in the form of a series of clinical pearls reflecting what accurate diagnosis with auscultation can mean to patient prognosis and outcome. This often subtle but ultimately simple subject often produces complex results and these must be considered in light of modern next-level diagnostic methods and patient management.