To New at H&Ps - answers to your questions and some advice - Eskay

 1.  Inferior vena cava (IVC) filter –  A Greenfield filter is an example of an IVC filter as is a Christmas tree filter, and there are other kinds.  They function as a sort of net to catch any emboli to prevent them from hitting the heart or lungs. 

 2.  If a patient has cardiac/vascular disease, there is a good chance that another will crop up, so if you have CAD (coronary artery disease) you could certainly have PAD (peripheral vascular disease), but not always.  Having CAD or PAD doesn’t necessarily mean you would have a valve issue, though.  CAD and PAD are most likely caused by the crap a person is eating and by smoking that clogs up the arteries.  Valve issues, on the other hand, are structural problems with the valves themselves and so would be separate issues from CAD. 

 3.  Mitral valve prolapse – The mitral valve has 2 leaflets.  Like all valves, they close to stop flow and open to allow it.  Prolapse happens when one or both valves become floppy and thus unable to open and close effectively.  The leaflets can be treated with surgery or the whole valve can be replaced with a mechanical valve (metal and plastic) or a bioprosthetic tissue valve - a bovine (cow) valve or a porcine (pig) valve. 

 4.  Bypass means to go around or pass by something, so this refers to a surgical procedure and not a disease or condition of the heart.  In cardiology, it means that one of the arteries supplying the heart muscle with blood (and therefore oxygen) has become clogged and chokes off the blood supply to part of the heart (that’s a heart attack).  To remedy this, one of the things they do is take out a vein from another part of the body (usually the saphenous vein in the leg) and use pieces of it to bypass or go around the clogged heart artery.  They plug one end of the “harvested” saphenous vein into the aorta and plug the other end into the artery past the clogged spot, thereby “bypassing” the clog to supply the heart muscle with blood.  Another use of the word “bypass” in thoracic surgery refers to the machine they use to pump the patient’s blood through to oxygenate it while the heart is stopped for surgery.  So, they are “bypassing” the heart by using a machine to keep the patient alive.  The concept is the same. 

And now some advice:  Build your knowledge--and here is what I recommend:

1)  Check out two web sites:  www.emedicinehealth.com and www.emedicine.com .  The first is written more for a lay person’s reading.  The other is written in clear language but in great detail, like for a medical student.  Both are written by genuine medical authorities, and so are reliable.  I’ve been transcribing for 35 years and wish I had had these resources back when.  I use them all the time and learn so much!  

 2)  A couple of times a week, choose a topic (e.g., mitral valve prolapse) and see what comes up in both of these web sites.  Print them and use them for your bedtime reading.  The knowledge you gain in 20 minutes will be absolutely invaluable.  Within a month, you will have an unbelievable fund of knowledge—a big plus if you are working with a speciality like cardiology.