“As a first-year cardiology fellow, I saw that there were only a few ECG books in cardiac electrophysiology. The diagnosis of arrhythmia starts with an EKG. Therefore, I became interested in it and started writing an EKG book dedicated to cardiac arrhythmias which would be geared toward physicians in different phases of their medical careers, which include subinterns, residents and cardiology fellows and cardiac electrophysiology fellows, and clinical cardiac electrophysiologists.” – Mithilesh Kumar Das, MD
I became interested in cardiology as a medical student, when I saw a sudden cardiac death in a soccer field. It was an 18-year-old kid, who just passed out. Within a few minutes he was pronounced dead. We couldn’t figure it out why this happened. So, when I started my medicine rotations I would go to the cardiac care wards and watch the monitors and try to figure out why the EKGs sometimes showed bizarre tracings. I finished basic training in India and came to New York City, where I completed my residency at New York Methodist and then my fellowship at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell Medical Center, which has an excellent center for studying cardiac electrophysiology. As a first-year cardiology fellow, I saw that there were only a few books in cardiac electrophysiology. As I mentioned before, the diagnosis of arrhythmia starts with an EKG or rhythm strip. So when I finished my training, I started thinking about writing this EKG book dedicated to cardiac arrhythmias geared toward people in different phases of their careers, from medical students to cardiac electrophysiologists.
Electrocardiography of Arrhythmias: A Comprehensive Review is the companion to Dr. Zipes’s book, Cardiac Electrophysiology: From Cell to Bedside, which is very comprehensive and covers the whole spectrum of cardiac electrophysiology. Dr. Zipes’s book is focused more on basic science and on the clinical aspect of electrophysiology. We thought that if we wrote a book on EKGs that covers every clinical chapter of Zipes’s book, it would be very useful to understand the EKG aspect of arrhythmia. When you see a patient in your outpatient clinic or in the hospital, most of the time, you need to see the EKG before you can start thinking about any cardiac arrhythmias. So I think the EKG is the first step to further diagnosis, which is why Electrocardiography of Arrhythmias: A Comprehensive Review is really a fit companion book for the main book.
When I started working on the book, I talked to my fellows and asked them what bothers them most when they see an EKG. They said, “Arrhythmias.” So, in Electrocardiography of Arrhythmias, we start out with the basic principles of arrhythmia, then we have discussed how to diagnose an arrhythmia. This we did by using examples and clinical scenarios for the EKGs. We also have clinical histories and very simple explanations. I think the book is most useful for cardiology and clinical cardiac electrophysiology fellows because it covers the entire spectrum of arrhythmia EKGs. It’s also very useful for second- and third-year residents to go over the basic principles of cardiac arrhythmias. And finally, I think clinical cardiac electrophysiologists will also find it to be a useful review.
Mithilesh Kumar Das, MD is an associate professor of clinical medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and chief of cardiac arrhythmia at the Roudebush VA Medical Center. He serves on the editorial board of Heart Rhythm, the official Journal of Heart Rhythm Society. He is also a member of editorial board of the Journal of Atrial Fibrillation. Dr. Das is an author of Electrocardiography of Arrhythmias: A Comprehensive Review.
Dr. Das received his medical degree in internal medicine in Ranchi, India. He completed a residency in internal medicine at New York Methodist Hospital, where he served as chief resident. Prior to his work at Indiana University, Dr. Das served as a fellow at New York Presbyterian Hospital at Cornell Medical Center, New York where he completed fellowships in cardiovascular disease and clinical cardiac electrophysiology. He is board-certified in Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiac Electrophysiology. He routinely performs catheter ablation of complex cardiac arrhythmias, laser lead extraction and device implantation. He is an active researcher and his interest involves clinical as well as basic science research. Dr. Das is the recipient of the Charles Fisch Teacher of the Year Award and the VA Young Investigator Award.