Evolution of Cardiology as A Specialty

Science is a conscious effort to try, find and improve human understanding from various aspects in human nature. The number of medical specialties continues to grow until they reach even smaller branches known as sub-specialties. One type of specialization in medical science is the specialization of cardiology, the science that focuses on the needs of the heart organ. The development of cardiology cannot be separated from the history behind it. The progress of cardiology up to this point is a continuous interrelated journey. Every lesson in the past will be a capital for future experience, as will cardiology, where each phase becomes the foundation for future development

English

At the end of year 2019, the world faced an outbreak of a highly virulent novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which changed the way physicians, including cardiologists, do their routine clinical practice. As distance limitation and efficient use of personal protective devices must be employed to prevent the pandemic spreading, even simple electrocardiogram (ECG) taking that involves directly placing electrode leads on a patient’s body may become riskier. This review will discuss the possibility of minimal or no touch EKG using the latest wireless technologies, beneficial in monitoring COVID-19 patients for cardiovascular problems or patients who seek cardiac care, but with posing risk of concomitant COVID-19

Perbandingan dua aplikasi penapis fibrilasi atrium berbasis ponsel cerdas pada populasi Indonesia

Background: Due to its adverse outcomes and thromboembolic complications, early detection of atrial fibrillation (AF) is advisable in the general population. This study aims to compare the diagnostic ability of two distinct method in smartphone application format, namely : AliveCor KardiaMobile and FibriCheck. Methods: This study was conducted in Mohammad Hospital General Hospital Palembang with convenience sampling of 170 participants aged 18 years or older. The subjects underwent Fibricheck and KardiaMobile recordings followed by 12 lead electrocardiogram read by board-certified cardiologist as the diagnostic standard. Results: After the exclusion of previous pacemaker implantation (n=7), 163 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 51±15 years with gender distribution of 74.8% men and 25.2% women. Most of the subjects were asymptomatic (87.1%) with mean blood pressure of 130/80 mmHg. The Fibricheck readings showed sensitivity of 73% and specificity of 93%, meanwhile Kardiamobile was able to detect AF with sensitivity of 77% and specificity of 98%.  Conclusion: In our study, KardiaMobile demonstrated overall greater sensitivity and specificity when compared to FibriCheck. However, KardiaMobile requires an external metal sensor that must be puchased separately. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to directly compare both methods in the Indonesian population