Stopping Heart Disease in Its Tracks

Prevention and access to comprehensive care can make all the difference.

Heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack, stroke and heart failure, continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, the American College of Cardiology predicts that in 2019 about 1,055,000 people will have coronary events, and the CDC estimates heart disease will kill an estimated 610,000 Americans in the same timeframe.

The three biggest risk factors

Nearly half of all Americans have at least one of the following three risk factors that play a role in heart disease:

• Smoking
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol

The CDC also names diabetes, obesity, an unhealthy diet, inactivity, tobacco use and consuming too much alcohol as controllable or treatable lifestyle factors that determine our risk of developing cardiac disease, which is another word for heart disease.

Step up healthy habits to stop disease

Prevention is the best defense when it comes to stopping the heart disease epidemic.

The CDC recommends healthy habits like:

• Consuming a healthy diet
• Exercising the recommended amount—150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous aerobic activity
• Not smoking or using other forms of tobacco
• Keeping a healthy weight
• Controlling alcohol use
• Managing diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol through medication and lifestyle changes
• Regular check-ups with your physician, particularly if you suffer from the above diseases

It’s important to keep in touch with your physician about the latest medications and treatment options for your specific health history, as it could prevent you from further risk.

Comprehensive care is essential

If you’re already at risk or have a history of the disease, access to comprehensive care is vitally important in heart care. Studies have shown that those who live in rural areas are at higher risk of dying early from heart disease and stroke than their urban counterparts. While most of this gap appears to be due to lifestyle factors that are more prevalent in rural areas, there is also a component that may be due to lack of services within reasonable driving distances.
While Chesapeake Regional Healthcare is not considered a rural institution, we pride ourselves on bringing world-class services to our local community members. It is important that we offer the latest technologies and treatment options for our neighbors, and that’s why we are working hard to bring a full suite of heart care to Chesapeake.

Modern cardiac care

Today’s in-hospital cardiac care includes a range of procedures and surgeries that treat heart disease at its source, resulting in longer life expectancies and a better quality of life for patients.

For Chesapeake Regional it all begins in our chest pain center (CPC), which has been developed to ensure that patients receive a fast, accurate diagnosis and treatment as soon as they arrive at our doors. The CPC is a collaborative effort involving a multidisciplinary team of board-certified and nationally recognized interventional cardiologists, emergency physicians, a rapid response nurse team, cardiovascular technologists and EMS personnel whose goal is fast treatment. An average of 8,000 chest pain patients come through our doors each year and a portion of them will be referred to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab for treatment.

Cardiac Catheterization Labs offer alternatives to surgery

The team in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab provides care to an average of 1300 patients each year. In this minimally invasive operating room, cardiologists utilize advanced imaging technology, called coronary angiography, to check blood flow to and from the heart and detect any abnormalities of the heart. Often, when patients come to the Emergency Room with heart attack symptoms, they will undergo an angiography to determine if they have had or are at risk for a heart attack. If the source of a heart attack is detected, an angioplasty, the most common cardiac procedure in the country, is typically performed.

An electrophysiology test for abnormal heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, can also be performed in the Cath Lab. Arrhythmia can cause fainting or cardiac arrest, when your heart stops beating. If the type and location of the arrhythmia is identified, the physician can treat it on site in various ways, including inserting medical devices to help the heart beat properly.

Open heart surgery will allow CRH to offer fully comprehensive heart care

These minimally invasive Cardiac Cath Lab procedures make up the bulk of modern heart disease treatment. However, open-heart surgery, which today is often called traditional heart surgery, can be used for more advanced heart disease procedures not done in the Cath Lab. Our goal is to be able to offer these surgeries to our patients, with the state’s approval, so that our cardiac offerings are all-inclusive.

With open-heart surgery, a cardiac surgeon can:

• Treat arteries with a coronary artery bypass graft
• Mend heart valves to allow better blood travel through the heart
• Patch-up damaged or abnormal areas of the heart

With open-heart surgery, an interventional cardiologist can:

• Replace a heart valve without opening the chest
• Close open areas between heart chambers

When it comes to heart disease, we believe prevention is imperative and your care options should be second-to-none. Learn how you can help with our bid to receive approval to offer open-heart surgery right here in Chesapeake.

Sherwood A. Moore, Sr., MBA, RCIS, ACVP, is the Cardiovascular Administrator for Chesapeake Regional Healthcare. In this role he oversees both the Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology Departments, the Chest Pain Center at CRH, and Peripheral Vascular and Neurodiagnostic Services.  As a registered cardiovascular invasive specialist, he also worked to develop the interventional program, and the patient care team that provides cardiac care in the Cath Lab.