Ramón Ribes · Sergio Mejía Ramón Ribes · Sergio Mejía
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Cardiovascular English Ramón Ribes · Sergio Mejía Ramón Ribes · Sergio Mejía Cardiovascular English 12 Ramón Ribes, MD, PhD Hospital Reina Sofia Servicio de Radiología Avda. Menéndez Pidal s/n. Córdoba 14004, Spain Sergio Mejía, MD, PhD Xanit International Hospital Benalmádena, Spain ISBN 978-3-540-73141-2 e-ISBN 978-3-540-73142-9 DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-73142-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2007939514 © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcast- ing, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this pub- lication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protec- tive laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Product liability: the publishers cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information about dosage and application contained in this book. In every individual case the user must check such information by consulting the relevant literature. Cover design: Frido Steinen-Broo, eStudio Calamar, Spain Printed on acid-free paper 987654321 springer.com To my mother, Maribel Bautista Sierra, my first teacher, for her endless love. R. Ribes To my children, from the bottom of my heart. S. Mejía Preface After the successful publication of Medical English, Radiological English and Primary Care English by Springer, I considered it a top priority to keep on writing medical English books by specialties, which could become useful tools for health care professionals and medical students all over the world. Being a cardiovascular radiologist myself, Cardiovascular English was one of the first titles that came to my mind when I began to think about a series of medical English books by specialties. In spite of the fact that car- diovascular diseases are my main area of interest, I would not have dared co-write a book on cardiovascular English without the enthusiastic support of Dr. Mejía. This book project started in Benalmadena when, during the dinner after a 1-day course on cardiovascular imaging, Dr. Manuel Concha, a promi- nent figure in cardiac surgery and one of the pioneers of cardiac trans- plants in my country, and who was aware of my idea of writing a cardio- vascular English book, introduced Dr. Mejía to me saying “Ramón, Sergio is the person you are looking for.” He was absolutely right. Sergio Mejía has been enthusiastically com- mitted to the book project since its inception. Like its predecessors, Cardiovascular English is not written by English teachers and aimed at English students, but it is written by doctors and aimed at doctors. Dr. Mejía has done an excellent job, on the one hand, adapting to Cardiovascular English some of the chapters of both medical English and radiological English, and on the other hand, designing and writing Cardio- vascular English chapters in which we try to help the non-native English- speaking cardiologist, cardiology resident, nurse, or medical student deal with the nuances of day-to-day cardiovascular English. We are currently working on several book projects that we hope will be- come new titles of the series of medical English books by specialties, and look forward to your feedback in order to improve the series and provide health care professionals with more books aimed at other medical special- ties in the future. August 2007 Ramón Ribes, MD, PhD Preface More than two decades ago, we medical students at the Health Sciences Institute in Medellín, Colombia, listened astonished to our professors when they asked us to read our medical textbooks in English. It was a real challenge for a group of non-native English speakers, not only to study pathology, anatomy, and physiology, but to do it in English. “They are cra- zy,” we thought. But nowadays, I really appreciate the importance of that idea. It was brilliant. They not only recommended us, but also did their best to send us to North American hospitals to do short rotations as visi- tors. As a matter of fact, English is the language of science. If you want to be able to communicate with colleagues worldwide, and if you want to take advantage of using the Internet and keeping up to date, then you need a high level of mastery of the English language. Some of you might think, “But if this author lives in Spain, what is he talking about?” Well, I work at an international hospital in southern Spain, the beach of Europe. Please take care and read carefully. I have written the “beach” of Europe. So we have many many visitors, tourists, and residents from Northern and Central Europe as our population of interest. In my hospital, we treat patients from Finland to Germany, and it is not possible to do a good job if you do not speak English. When Dr. Ribes kindly invited me to co-write Cardiovascular English,I was delighted to have the opportunity to help non-native English-speaking colleagues to improve their cardiovascular English knowledge. This manual is part of a medical English series coordinated by Dr. Ribes, and I hope it will be very useful to those students, residents, nurses, technicians, and specialists who want to make some forward movement. Traveling, attending an international congress for the first time, submitting an abstract, writing an article, presenting a paper, attending a course abroad, and so on are all forward professional movements, especially when one is a non-native-En- glish speaker. I also want to acknowledge the cooperation of the contributors. They are of key importance in the final delivery of this book. Western countries are looking at the Far East, and that will probably be the next step in globalization and part of the twenty-first century’s history. In this process, English seems to be the common language, that is, the “second” language for everyone. Cardiovascular professionals are not the X Preface exception. So let us move forward and get involved in the adventure of learning English, getting used to cardiovascular English. Please enjoy the reading. August 2007 Sergio Mejía, MD, PhD Table of Contents I Methodological Approach to Cardiological English Introduction ........................................... 3 How to be Fluent in Cardiological English .................... 3 II Cardiological Grammar Introduction ........................................... 9 Tenses ................................................ 10 Modal Verbs ............................................ 22 Conditionals ............................................ 27 Passive Voice ........................................... 31 Passive Forms of Present and Past Tenses ..................... 32 Reported Speech ........................................ 34 Questions .............................................. 38 Infinitive/-ing ........................................... 40 Countable and Uncountable Nouns .......................... 44 Articles: A/An and The .................................... 45 Word Order ............................................ 47 Relative Clauses ......................................... 47 Adjectives .............................................. 51 Prepositions ............................................ 57 XII Table of Contents III Cardiological Scientific Literature: Writing an Article Introduction ........................................... 63 Preliminary Work ....................................... 63 Article Header .......................................... 63 Main Text .............................................. 67 References ............................................. 74 Additional Material ...................................... 80 Final Tips .............................................. 82 IV Letters to Editors of Cardiovascular Journals Introduction ........................................... 85 Submission Letters ...................................... 86 Resubmission Letters ..................................... 87 Reconfiguration Letters ................................... 88 Letters of Thanks for an Invitation to Publish an Article in a Journal .................................... 91 Asking about the Status of a Paper .......................... 92 Other Letters ........................................... 92 In Summary ............................................ 94 V Attending an International Cardiological Course Introduction ........................................... 97 Travel and Hotel Arrangements ............................. 98 Course Example ......................................... 106 Table of Contents XIII VI Giving a Cardiological Talk Introduction ........................................... 113 Dos and Don’ts ......................................... 113 Useful Sentences for Cardiological Talks ...................... 116 The Dreaded Questions-and-Comments Section ................ 119 VII Chairing a Cardiological Session Introduction ........................................... 127 Usual Chairperson’s Comments ............................. 127 Should Chairpersons Ask Questions? ......................... 129 What