Heart disease

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. It’s possible for anyone to develop coronary heart disease, which occurs when plaque builds up in your arteries.

Risk factors for heart disease can include:

• Diabetes or prediabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Lack of regular exercise
• Smoking
• Unhealthy diet

Common symptoms of cardiovascular disease are:

• Abdominal, back, jaw, neck or throat pain
• Arm or leg pain or numbness
• Chest pain or tightness
• Shortness of breath

The symptoms of heart disease can be different in men and women. Men are more likely to experience chest pain as a symptom, whereas women are more likely to have other symptoms, such as shortness of breath, nausea and extreme fatigue.

In some instances, a person is not diagnosed with cardiovascular disease until they experience a heart attack, stroke, angina (chest pain or discomfort) or heart failure. If you think you are having a heart attack, seek medical attention and call 911 immediately.

HOCM, also known as idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis (IHSS), is a heart condition that’s often hereditary. Causing the heart’s muscles to become abnormally thick, it makes it harder for your heart to pump blood properly.

HOCM symptoms

There is a good chance you won’t experience any apparent symptoms with HOCM. However, because it can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), it’s important to be evaluated by our specialists as soon as possible. If you’re an athlete or have a family history of HOCM, be aware that you may be at higher risk of developing this condition.

If you do have symptoms, they can include the following:

• Chest pain
• Fainting or lightheadedness
• Irregular heartbeat
• Leg swelling
• Shortness of breath

Treating HOCM with alcohol septal ablation

A nonsurgical method we use to treat HOCM, alcohol septal ablation works to bring the heart wall back to a normal size. During this procedure, our interventional cardiologists inject a tiny amount of pure alcohol into the overgrown heart wall through a balloon-tipped catheter. This kills the cells on contact, allowing the area to shrink and your blood flow to improve.

This type of minimally invasive treatment offers multiple benefits, including:

• A high success rate
• Enhanced quality of life
• Shorter recovery time
• Symptom relief

There are several types of structural heart conditions we diagnose and treat, which are caused by a noncoronary defect or abnormality of the heart. Without affecting the blood vessels, these diseases are often congenital — or present at birth — but can also occur later in life because of aging or an infection.

Some of the most common ones are:

• Arteriovenous fistula — An abnormal connection between an artery and a vein, this could lead to serious health complications, like blood clots, bleeding or even heart failure.
• Atrial septal defect (ASD) — A persisting opening between the heart's upper chambers, this congenital defect causes oxygen-rich blood to leak into your oxygen-poor blood.
• Paravalvular leak (PVL) — A rare complication that can occur after a heart valve replacement, PVL could lead to heart failure and an increased risk of infection.
• Patent foramen ovale (PFO) — With “holes” in the tissue walls of the upper chambers of your heart, PFO can require treatment or surgery.
• Pseudoaneurysms — Also known as a “false aneurysm,” this occurs when there is a leak of arterial blood from an artery into the surrounding tissue.
• Ventricular septal defect (VSD) — A very common heart defect in children, VSD is when there's a hole in the tissue wall that separates the lower two chambers of your heart.

Occurring in the four valves of the heart — the aortic, mitral, pulmonic and tricuspid valves — valvular heart conditions are caused when the tissues that form the valve leaflets narrow or don’t close completely. This can result in reduced blood flow or blood flowing backward to the valve.

These congenital or acquired diseases include:

• Acquired valvular disease — Caused by an infection — such as rheumatic fever — or changes in the valve structure, this condition can develop suddenly despite previously having normal function.
• Congenital valve disease — Resulting from an abnormal valve size, leaflets that don’t form correctly or an abnormal leaflet attachment, this disease affects the aortic or pulmonic valve.