Preventive Cardiology A practical manual

Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death across Europe, accounting for over four million deaths each year. The main objectives of preventive cardiology are to increase the duration and improve the quality of life. This indispensible manual provides practical advice on how to structure and run a preventive cardiology programme, addressing the prevention of cardiovascular disease in clinical practice through lifestyle, risk factor and therapeutic management. The approach described in this manual is for patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, those at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease and their families. It is written by the multidisciplinary team who coordinated the EUROACTION demonstration project in preventive cardiology in 8 countries in Europe, and provides a comprehensive lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factor management strategy . It is directed at doctors, nurses, dieticians, physiotherapists, physical activity specialists and other disciplines involved in the preventive and rehabilitative care of these patients. The manual takes the professional through the patient and family pathway - from patient identification, recruitment of patient and family, comprehensive assessment of lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors, to management of lifestyle change: stopping smoking, making healthy food choices, becoming physically active, achieving a healthy weight and shape and management of blood pressure, blood lipids and blood glucose to healthy levels. A programme model is described which includes both group and individual one-to-one approaches to care. The role of each member of the multi-disciplinary team is described together with the tools available to achieve lifestyle and risk factor change.

1 - Rationale for preventive cardiology programmes
2 - The nurse-led multidisciplinary team
3 - Identification and recruitment
4 - Comprehensive multidisciplinary family based cardiovascular assessment
5 - Changing lifestyles
6 - Smoking cessation
7 - Principles of dietary intervention
8 - Physical activity and exercise
9 - Principles of managing weight loss
10 - Blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose
11 - Cardioprotective drug therapies
12 - Erectile dysfunction
13 - The Health Promotion Workshop Programme
14 - Data management, quality assurance and audit

David Wood is the Garfield Weston Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist to the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust. He has a special interest in prevention of cardiovascular disease and is Raporteur for WHO Guidelines on Primary Prevention. He was a member of the WHF International Task Force on CVD Prevention, and a member of all three Joint European Societies Task Forces on cardiovascular disease prevention. He currently chairs the Joint British Societies Working Party on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice and is a member of the British Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation Council, the steering committee for the European Heart Health Charter and the steering committee for the European Heart Network project on Children and Obesity. He has served as a Board Member of the European Society of Cardiology and chaired the ESC Euro Heart Survey programme.