Category: Cardiology 101

posts here focus on a variety of topics all about the heart and how it works

Inside your heart – as captured by National Geographic

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

Here’s how your heart looks during a coronary angiography procedure. The white/yellow blood vessels are bringing oxygenated blood to the working muscles of the heart.  (See link below to the whole slide show).

Coronary angiography (also called cardiac catheterization) is sometimes referred to as the ‘gold standard’ of diagnostics for heart patients. The procedure involves threading a tiny catheter through an artery in the wrist or groin and pushing it up, up, up right into the beating heart. It’s considered to be an invasive procedure, but not surgical. Patients are sedated, but usually awake throughout.

The catheter is guided through the artery with the aid of a special x-ray machine. Contrast material (dye) is injected through the catheter and x-ray movies are created as the contrast material moves through the heart’s chambers, valves and major vessels.

The interventional cardiologists in the ‘cath lab’ then watch your beating heart up on the monitor, where they can spot any coronary arteries that are blocked or narrowed, and evaluate your heart function. If significant blockages are seen, further procedures like balloon angioplasty, stent implants or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) – commonly known as bypass surgery – may be attempted to restore blood flow to the threatened heart muscle.

I’ve undergone two of these invasive cardiac procedures – the first an emergency catheterization and stent implant when I was hospitalized for a heart attack, the second 15 months later to investigate ongoing cardiac symptoms. And I can tell you that it is freakishly fascinating to lie on the cath lab table, sedated yet very awake, and watch your own beating heart on the overhead monitor.   Continue reading “Inside your heart – as captured by National Geographic” →

How doctors discovered that women have heart attacks, too

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

Woman.pasja1000PIXABAYby Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

Following my heart attack, my family doctor told me that when she was in medical school, the type of heart attack that I’d had was called a ‘widowmaker‘.

This was apparently because a full blockage like mine in this particular coronary artery was usually fatal, thus making the patient’s wife an instant widow. Please note the gender imbalance: men – the ones who could ‘make’ a ‘widow’  – were considered to be the ones suffering this kind of heart attack. Doctors don’t, for example, call it the widower maker . . .

Alas, there are still doctors who are unaware that, since 1984, more women than men die of heart disease each year.  An American Heart Association survey found that only 8% of physicians (and an even more appalling 17% of cardiologists!) actually knew that heart disease kills more women than men annually.

So I was intrigued to run across this chronological overview on Gender and Cardiovascular Disease showing how since 1970, the medical profession has gradually – and I do mean gradually – wisened up to the reality that heart disease is a woman’s disease, too.  Continue reading “How doctors discovered that women have heart attacks, too” →

Heart disease – not just a man’s disease anymore

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Tragically, women may still come up short when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Sharonne Hayes, cardiologist and founder of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota spoke recently to staff from WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women With Heart Disease . 

Learn more here about why the inequities of this cardiology gender gap continue, and how women can empower themselves and others to achieve equal and quality care for their hearts:  Continue reading “Heart disease – not just a man’s disease anymore” →

Women under-diagnosed for Peripheral Artery Disease

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

woman legs pain

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

September is Peripheral Artery Disease Awareness Month, as I’m sure you have already noted on your calendar.  But in case you haven’t yet made celebratory plans for the occasion, you should know that people with PAD are at greater risk for heart attack, stroke, or if not appropriately treated in time, even amputation of limbs.

Awareness, however, among both the general public and family physicians about diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of this cardiovascular disease is extremely low. It’s therefore a good thing that September is finally here so we can address this.
 Continue reading “Women under-diagnosed for Peripheral Artery Disease” →