PBL: Coronary Artery Disease

Aim:

To understand how exercise increases the demands of both the heart and the body and how coronary artery disease may affect the heart.

ILOs:

Explain the cardiovascular changes during exercise and the role of the autonomic nervous system in the increases in heart rate and blood pressure.
Describe the mechanisms which lead to atherosclerosis and the risk factors for coronary artery disease.
Describe how coronary artery stenosis results in myocardial ischaemia and explain the production, character and distribution of cardiac chest pain
Describe how thrombus formation at the site of an atherosclerotic plaque can lead to occlusion of the coronary artery and acute coronary syndromes.
Describe the normal electrocardiogram (ECG) and outline the relationship between it and the cardiac cycle (P wave, QRS complex, T wave and atrial depolarisation, ventricular depolarisation, ventricular repolarisation).
Describe the investigations (in particular the exercise test) and management for angina pectoris.