Molly Thangaroopan, MD, FRCPC, Senior Fellow, Cardiology (Echocardiography), University Health Network, Toronto, ON.
Anusha Jegatheeswaran, MD, Resident, Cardiac Surgery, University of Toronto, University Health Network, Toronto, ON.
Vivek Rao, MD, FRCPC, Staff Surgeon and Associate Professor, University of Toronto, University Health Network, Toronto, ON.
Jagdish Butany, MBBS, MS, FRCPC, Staff Pathologist, University Health Network, Professor, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.

Deaths from cardiovascular diseases have been declining in many countries; however, the incidence and prevalence of heart failure continues to increase in most countries. This is related, at least in part, to the increasing proportion of older people, a fact that is emphasized by the nearly three-fold increase in the incidence of heart failure in women. Good medical treatments are now available, and for refractory cases there are increasing numbers of surgical interventions available and new ones being devised. The morbidity and mortality associated with heart failure are higher than those associated with any other chronic condition. This article addresses the basis of heart failure, its appropriate management, and some of the newer treatments available.
Key words: heart failure, therapy, surgical treatment, ventricular assist devices.

Basal Ganglia Motor Circuit is Target Site for Surgical Intervention

Farooq I. Khan, MD,
Robert Chen, MBBChir, MSc, FRCPC
Movement Disorders Centre,
Division of Neurology,
Toronto Western Hospital,
University of Toronto

Parkinson's Disease (PD) was first described by James Parkinson in 1817, and is a neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability. It results from the degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (pars compacta) causing alterations in the basal ganglia circuitry; this circuitry is responsible for modulating and facilitating motor function through the cerebral cortex. The evolution of the treatment for PD has relied on both pharmacological and surgical approaches, arguably the most important of which was the discovery of levodopa in the early 1960s. Since then a number of other pharmacological agents such as monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) inhibitors, and dopamine agonists, have played a vital role in the amelioration of disability arising from this disease. Unfortunately, long term pharmacotherapy, especially with levodopa, has caused problems of its own, namely the occurrence of fluctuation and dyskinesia. For these and other reasons that will be discussed, surgery has offered a ray of hope to combat this eventually crippling disease.