Heart Advisor

Ask The Doctors: December 2011

The cardiology community has been engaged in considerable discussion lately regarding the possible advantages of performing heart catheterization procedures, or “caths,” through the arm. The first step in a heart cath, getting into a major artery, is known to doctors as “vascular access.” This can be obtained either through the groin, via the femoral artery, or through the arm, via the radial artery in the wrist or the brachial artery in the elbow. The main goal of a cath is to inject contrast dye into the coronary arteries and create an X-ray movie of them, to see if severe narrowings are present. Sometimes, as in your case, stents need to be placed to open them up. The cardiology community has been engaged in considerable discussion lately regarding the possible advantages of performing heart catheterization procedures, or “caths,” through the arm. The first step in a heart cath, getting into a major artery, is known to…

Renal Denervation Among Top Innovations for 2012

Every year Cleveland Clinic experts draw up a list of 10 emerging technologies expected to help shape healthcare in the new year. The “Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2012” include a mix of diagnostic screening tools, medical therapies, treatments and even medical apps for mobile devices. At the top of the list is “catheter-based renal denervation to control resistant hypertension.” To help address high blood pressure, one of the world’s leading health problems, this 40-minute catheterization procedure targets the renal sympathetic system.

Heart Rate Recovery Can Be Improved with Exercise

How quickly your heart rate returns to normal after strenuous exercise can be a key indicator of heart health, and a recent study found that regular exercise can improve your heart rate recovery (HRR) within just a few months. The results are important because research shows individuals with a healthy HRR live longer than those with an abnormal HRR, in which the heart takes longer to slow down to a normal rate. The study, published in the Sept. 26 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, was led by Leslie Cho, MD, co-section head of Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation and director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Center at Cleveland Clinic.

Being Slim Isn’t Always a Guarantee for Heart Health

You work hard to stay slim and maintain a healthy weight. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to protect you from heart problems if you have metabolic syndrome. A Greek study, published in the Sept. 20 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that normal-weight individuals with metabolic syndrome have an increased risk of developing heart failure, compared with obese people who have no other components of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors (see chart) that occur together and increase your risk for heart attack, stroke and diabetes.

Medicated Stents Protect Arteries Against Downstream Blockage

Medicated stents are widely used to help open narrowed arteries and keep them open with the help of drugs designed to prevent the blood vessels from becoming blocked again. Cells in the wall of an artery often tend to grow tissue around the stent, thus narrowing the artery in the same place as before—a process known as restenosis. To help prevent restenosis, doctors have developed drug-eluting stents that administer drugs such as rapamycin and paclitaxel to inhibit tissue growth around the stents, which are placed in arteries when plaque in those arteries threatens to block blood flow.

Heart Beat: December 2011

Just having slightly high blood pressure may significantly raise your risk of having a stroke, according to research published Sept. 28 in the journal Neurology. A review of 12 studies involving more than 500,000 people found that adults who had pre-hypertension—defined as have a systolic blood pressure between 120 and 139 mmHg or diastolic pressure between 80 and 89 mmHg—had a 55 percent increased risk of having a stroke compared to adults whose blood pressure fell within the normal range. The American Heart Association notes that blood pressure is the most powerful determinant of stroke risk. Individuals younger than 65 were at greater stroke risk due to pre-hypertension than older adults, many of whom have other risk factors that influenced their stroke risk.

Warfarin Alternatives Provide Doctors and Their Patients with More Options

Warfarin (Coumadin) is a life-saving drug for people who have had heart attacks or who have had a blood clot in the legs (deep veing thrombosis or DVT) or lungs (pulmonary embolism or PE), or who have certain arrhythmias or heart valve disease. The widely used anticoagulant, or “blood thinner,” however, can be a serious risk to patients with a tendency to bleed, and requires frequent monitoring to ensure that patients are getting the proper dose.