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•    Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among Americans.
•    Take blood pressures correctly
-    give client 5 minutes rest.
-    take blood pressure while client is lying, sitting, and standing.
-    ask client if he/she has recently smoked, drank a beverage containing caffeine or was emotionally upset. If so, repeat blood pressure in 30 minutes.
•    Rarely, the heart may lie on the right side instead of the left, this is called Dextrocardia.
•    Valves control the direction of the blood flow through the heart. Flow is unidirectional.
•    When the atria contract, the atrioventricular valves swing open, allowing the blood to flow down into the ventricles.
•    When the ventricles contract the valves snap shut preventing blood from flowing back up into the atria. Semilunar valves open allowing blood to eject during ventricular contraction.
•    If the SA node fails to generate an impulse, the AV node takes over, generating a slower rate. If the AV node fails to generate an impulse, the Bundle of His takes over, generating an even slower rate. If the Bundle of His fails to generate an impulse, the Purkinje fibers take over and generate an even slower rate.
•    Damaged areas of the heart may also stimulate contractions and produce arrhythmias.
•    Rapid, short-term control of blood pressure is achieved by cardiac and vascular reflexes that are initiated by stretch receptors (baroreceptors) in the walls of the carotid sinus and the aortic arch.
•    Many clients with angina or MIs benefit from involvement in a structured cardiac rehabilitation program to assist clients to increase their activity level in a monitored environment.
•    Current research suggests that life style and personal habits are closely related to cardiac changes once attributed to aging.
•    The elderly are less able to physically adapt to stressful physical and emotional conditions, because their hearts do three things less quickly: the myocardium contracts less easily, the left ventricle ejects blood less quickly, and the heart is slower to conduct the impulse for a heartbeat.
•    Because different enzymes are released into the blood at varying periods after a myocardial infarction, it is important to evaluate enzyme levels in relation to the onset of the physical symptoms such as chest pain.
•    Clients who are in postoperative recovery, on bed rest, obese, taking hormonal contraceptives or had knee or hip surgery should be monitored closely for thrombophlebitis.