Common reasons for cards consult?

[vicious]

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I'm an IM intern soon to start on my cards consult elective and looking to make a decent impression. I was just wondering what some of the most common reasons for inpatient cards consults are so I can bone up a little on my reading.

 

[tibor75]

Chest pain
Positive troponin
Pre-Op
"abnormal ECG"
"abnormal Echo"
Afib



all those would probably be 80-90% of your business. Less often would be "SOB" and "arrythmia of some sort" or "sinus tachy" (from a stupid doctor)

 

[vicious]

Great, thanks. Sound easy enough...

 

[radslooking]

i also like to consult for Vfib and asystole, usually after rounds are over

 

[drdavemd]

Chest pain
Positive troponin
Pre-Op
"abnormal ECG"
"abnormal Echo"
Afib

I'd say troponins, AFib, and abnormal ecg/tele/pvcs account for the vast majority. There are various models for pre-op risk assessment and depending on what your program prefers, make sure to have a grasp of that decision tree.

Have fun!

 

[dragonfly99]

agree with dave and tibor,
definitely you should know/look up the Ddx for positive troponins...it's not always an acute coronary syndrome.
+ trop and atrial fibrillatoin are very common consults.
Also sometimes you'll get consulted for CHF management.

 

[gutonc]

On ortho/neurosurg and have a heart.

 

[sacrament]

On ortho/neurosurg and have a heart.

Indeed. "Want to have cardiology on board" is probably the 2nd or 3rd most common reason given at my program, typically regarding completely stable patients with some remote (or erroneous) cardiac history. These consult notes always end with the phrase "will follow along peripherally."