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newsandgamess · 2 months
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Top Cardiologist Near Me in Houston
At Epic Heart and Vascular Center, we offer comprehensive care for all heart-related conditions. If you're looking for a cardiologist near me, our qualified team of cardiologists in Houston provides advanced diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Alongside treatment, we provide valuable advice and educational resources to help you prevent heart ailments. Our dedicated physicians guide you in making positive lifestyle changes, such as improving your diet, exercising, and quitting smoking, to enhance your overall health.
Find us at Epic Heart and Vascular Center for trusted care. Visit our website www.epicheartandvascular.com or call 📞 (832) 432-1951 for Houston, 📞 (832) 645-8992 for Richmond, and 📞 (832) 304-2070 for Tomball/Willowbrook.
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wevtecservic · 10 months
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Expert Cardiology Consultants in Houston: Your Pathway to Heart Health
Heart disease is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, making it crucial to have access to skilled and compassionate cardiology consultants. In the bustling metropolis of Houston, Texas, you'll find an array of renowned cardiology consultants who are dedicated to delivering top-notch care for heart-related issues. In this blog, we'll explore why these specialists are essential and highlight some of the leading cardiology consultants in Houston. The Significance of Cardiology Consultants Cardiology consultants are medical professionals with specialized expertise in diagnosing, treating, and preventing heart diseases. They play a vital role in safeguarding the heart health of patients through a combination of diagnostic tests, medication management, interventional procedures, and lifestyle counseling. A trusted cardiology consultant can help you maintain a healthy heart or address any existing cardiac issues effectively. Leading Cardiology Consultants in Houston Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center One of the foremost names in cardiology in Houston is the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center. This world-renowned institution is affiliated with the Houston Methodist Hospital, consistently ranked among the top hospitals in the United States. The center is home to a team of highly skilled cardiology consultants who provide comprehensive services, including diagnostic testing, interventional procedures, and cardiac rehabilitation programs. Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute The Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute is another prominent player in the field of cardiology in Houston. With a vast network of hospitals and clinics throughout the city, they offer a wide range of cardiology services, from general heart care to advanced cardiac surgery. Their cardiology consultants are known for their expertise in diagnosing and treating complex cardiac conditions. Texas Heart Institute The Texas Heart Institute is an internationally renowned research and treatment facility based in Houston. It has a long history of pioneering cardiovascular research and innovations in the field. The institute's cardiology consultants are at the forefront of cardiac care, specializing in the treatment of heart diseases through the latest advancements in medical technology. Kelsey-Seybold Clinic Kelsey-Seybold Clinic is a multi-specialty medical group that offers a comprehensive range of healthcare services, including cardiology. Their team of board-certified cardiologists provides personalized care for heart patients. With various locations in Houston, they make cardiology consultations easily accessible for the city's residents. Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, a part of the CHI St. Luke's Health system, is well-known for its cardiac services and is home to some of Houston's most esteemed cardiology consultants. They are equipped to handle a wide spectrum of heart conditions, ranging from arrhythmias and heart failure to complex heart surgeries. Conclusion In a city as diverse and dynamic as Houston, it's comforting to know that you have access to a host of exceptional cardiology consultants who are dedicated to your heart health. From renowned institutions like the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center to the pioneering research at the Texas Heart Institute, you have a wealth of options for seeking expert cardiology care. If you're looking to maintain a healthy heart or require specialized treatment for a cardiac condition, don't hesitate to consult one of these leading cardiology consultants in Houston. Your heart deserves the best, and these experts are here to ensure it receives the care and attention it needs to thrive. Your heart health is a top priority, and with these exceptional professionals by your side, you're in good hands.
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advancedcardiodr · 5 years
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Advanced Cardiovascular Care Center | Best Cardiologists in Houston
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Address: 10480 Main Street, Houston, TX 77025
Phone: (713) 599-1144
Located in Houston, Texas, The Montgomery Heart & Wellness Center is a state-of-the-art wellness facility complete with all the technology and resources to provide comprehensive medical and wellness care. Having seen many patients suffer the consequences of chronic heart disease, Dr. Baxter Montgomery founded the practice in 2006 with the mission to reverse and prevent life-threatening illness.
Dr. Baxter Montgomery is a Board Certified Cardiologist with years of experience in the latest medical practices and nutritional health. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Texas and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. In addition to running Montgomery Heart & Wellness, he manages arrhythmias and coronary disease, performs angiographies, defibrillator implants, and other hospital procedures and teaches young physicians.
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nelsonshake · 7 years
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6th Echocardiogram: Visiting Houston
We met with Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) in Houston yesterday because they’re the number one pediatric cardiology unit in the nation, we wanted a second opinion, and they can do a sedated heart echocardiogram, which would give the clearest image to date of Isla’s heart.
Since the echo entailed sedation, we had to put Isla on a fast. We fed her one last time at 6:15 in the morning. She’s been eating well lately—more ounces per day than ever—so we were worried she might lose it later in the afternoon when she was hungry, but she did pretty well. We gave her the oral sedative at 1:00, and within 30 minutes she was out. (It is a strange thing to see your child drugged. It’s not like when you peek into their room and catch a glimpse of them sleeping. She was just limp, lifeless. It was really quite disturbing for me.)
They also did an X-ray of Isla’s chest, which in the past has shown if her heart is dilated or enlarged. Soon after all of this, we met with Dr. Alan Riley. He’s the cardiologist our doctor in Temple connected us with. He gave us a wealth of information and was quite helpful, answering any questions we had and carefully explaining what’s ahead.
The main thing we learned is that the hole between Isla’s ventricles, called a VSD, is larger than anyone initially thought. We’ve been under the impression that it is 5 millimeters in size, which it is—5 millimeters in width; however, it is also a very long hole, stretching from the top of Isla’s heart to the back of it. Now, it’s true that, as our doctor in Temple has told us, the tricuspid valve is beginning to cover up part of the VSD, but it is covering up the hole better in some places than others because of how long the VSD is. In Dr. Riley’s mind, the growth of the tricuspid valve alone probably won’t be enough to cover over the VSD. (This isn’t to completely discount the tricuspid valve’s growth, either. Dr. Riley said that without its growth we would’ve already done surgery.)
Another newer concern has to do with the aortic valve, the most important part of the heart. It occupies the space at the other side of the VSD and hangs right above it. Sometimes a VSD can start to draw the aortic valve into the hole because of the intense pressure involved with the ventricles. If that happens, the aortic valve can start to leak, and then you have a dangerous case on your hands. That hasn’t happened with Isla, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility, and that concerns Dr. Riley.
(I realize I’m only mentioning the VSD. That’s because the hole between Isla’s atria, the ASD, is really inconsequential in comparison. If the ASD were the only hole in her heart, we wouldn’t even be meeting with doctors in Houston. You can monitor a kid with an ASD for years and not have to worry about substantial health problems.)
We asked for Dr. Riley’s honest opinion, and he said that from where he stood he thought the holes closing on their own is unlikely. That said, we still have some time to see if they will. He explained that research has shown letting a VSD like this linger past one year of age can begin to bring in a host of other problems. So for Isla right now, her first birthday in April is the benchmark. That gives us four to five months to try a few things.
The main thing Dr. Riley wants to try is to wean her off medicines and see if her heart grows stronger on its own. The reason we can do this safely is that Isla’s heart condition isn’t the kind that will result in sudden cardiac arrest. Any deterioration would be gradual and announce itself with noticeable signs—difficulty eating, more labored breathing, etc.
We give Isla Enalapril once a day for her blood pressure and Lasix twice a day for the dilation and enlargement of her heart. We’re stopping Enalapril today and will drop Lasix to once a day next week. If her heart in the coming months improves without medications, great. If it doesn’t and her heart starts to become enlarged or dilated again, then we’ve got our answer: Her heart isn’t going to improve on its own, and we need to move to surgery.
So, again, open-heart surgery would likely happen close to her first birthday, somewhere around April.
We’ll see our cardiologist in Temple in December and then visit Dr. Riley in Houston again in January to check in on how Isla’s doing with decreased meds. We’ll remain in a holding pattern until then.
One thing we continue to be grateful for is how Isla doesn’t know anything different. She remains a happy, joyful baby. She charms the nurses, techs, and doctors with her big smile and laugh, and we like to think she brings a little light to a medical world dealing with dour and difficult situations.
We covet your prayers and would like to ask you to pray specifically for several things concerning all of this:
That Isla’s heart could get stronger without her medication
That she would not get sick, specifically avoiding any respiratory illness, throughout the winter months
To that end, please pray that Sally and I can also avoid getting sick
That she would continue to eat well
That the needs of our day to day can still be accomplished while we’re juggling all of this
Thank you for continuing to pray for her and for us.
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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years
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Eerie Emptiness Of ERs Worries Doctors As Heart Attack And Stroke Patients Delay Care
The patient described it as the worst headache of her life. She didn’t go to the hospital, though. Instead, the Washington state resident waited almost a week.
When Dr. Abhineet Chowdhary finally saw her, he discovered she had a brain bleed that had gone untreated.
The neurosurgeon did his best, but it was too late.
“As a result, she had multiple other strokes and ended up passing away,” said Chowdhary, director of the Overlake Neuroscience Institute in Bellevue, Washington. “This is something that most of the time we’re able to prevent.”
Chowdhary said the patient, a stroke survivor in her mid-50s, had told him she was frightened of the hospital.
She was afraid of the coronavirus.
The fallout from such fear has concerned U.S. doctors for weeks while they have tracked a worrying trend: As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the number of patients showing up at hospitals with serious cardiovascular emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks shrank dramatically.
Across the U.S., doctors call the drop-off staggering, unlike anything they’ve seen. And they worry a new wave of patients is headed their way — people who have delayed care and will be sicker and whose injuries will be exacerbated by the time they finally arrive in emergency rooms.
It has alarmed certain medical groups, such as the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. The latter is running ads to urge people to call 911 when they’re having symptoms of a heart attack or stroke.
‘Where Are All These Patients?’
Across the country, ER volumes are down about 40% to 50%, said Dr. William Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
“I haven’t seen anything like it, ever,” he said. “We anticipated, actually, higher volumes.”
But doctors say once-busy emergency rooms have slowed to an eerie calm.
“It was very scary because it was so quiet,” Dr. David Tashman, medical director of the ER at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, California, said about the early days of the outbreak.
“We normally see 100 patients a day, and then, you know, overnight, we were down to 30 or 40.”
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Some of that decrease in normal patient volume was deliberate.
As hospitals prepared for a surge of COVID patients, officials advised people to avoid emergency rooms if at all possible. Tashman said he wasn’t surprised to see fewer trauma patients, because the roads were emptier. But soon he and other ER physicians noticed that even truly urgent cases were not coming in.
“We know the number of heart attacks isn’t going to go down in a pandemic. It really shouldn’t,” Tashman said.
Dr. Larry Stock, an ER doctor at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, California, thought the same thing.
“I mean, we’ve all been scratching our heads — where are all these patients?” Stock said. “They’re at home, and we’re starting to get … the tip of the iceberg of this phenomenon.”
One study collected data from nine hospitals across the country, focusing on a crucial procedure used to reopen a blocked cardiac artery after a heart attack. The hospitals performed 38% fewer of those procedures in March than in previous months.
At Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Dr. Malveeka Sharma has tracked a 60% decline in stroke admissions in the first half of April compared with the previous year.
Nationally, 911 call volumes for strokes and heart attacks declined in March through early April, according to data collected by ESO, a software company used by emergency medical service agencies.
In Connecticut, Dr. Kevin Sheth noticed a similar trend at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Sheth started calling other stroke doctors, trying to understand what was happening.
“The numbers had dramatically plummeted almost everywhere,” said Sheth, chief of the division of neurocritical care and emergency neurology at Yale School of Medicine. “This is a big deal from a public health perspective.”
Sheth said clinical stroke centers have seen an “unprecedented” drop in stroke patients being treated, with decreases from 50% to 70%.
In April, the American Heart and American Stroke associations put out emergency guidance to ensure health care providers keep stroke teams active and ready to treat patients during the pandemic.
Sheth said he worries it could be challenging to care for all the patients who eventually show up at hospitals in even worse shape after delaying care.
“When those stroke numbers come back, we could have serious capacity issues,” he said. “We were already bursting at the seams.”
“People are in this fear mode,” said Dr. John Harold, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and board president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Heart Association.
Harold said the full public health consequences of people avoiding the hospital aren’t yet clear.
“The big question is, are these people dying at home?” he asked.
Patients Fear The Hospital
Patients who are already at higher risk of experiencing medical emergencies describe a mix of fear and confusion about how to get safe and adequate care.
In March, Dustin Domzalski ran out of his epilepsy medication.
The 35-year-old from Bellingham, Washington, had trouble reaching his doctor, whom he would normally see in person, to get a refill.
Within a few days of not taking the medication, he had a major seizure while in the shower. His caregiver called an ambulance, which took him to the ER.
“I woke up and asked where I was and what happened,” Domzalski said. “The guy in the next room to me was coughing and doing all kinds of stuff.”
The experience was so unnerving that Domzalski now plans to avoid the hospital if at all possible.
“I am not going to the hospital unless I have a seizure and injure myself,” he said. “I’d rather stay here than potentially have problems from the virus.”
Miami resident Stayc Simpson recalled a frightening ordeal when she went to the ER in mid-March.
Simpson, a cancer survivor with heart failure, woke up with a pounding heart rate that she worried could signal a heart attack.
At the hospital, she was screened for COVID-19 and was soon moved to a unit for suspected cases because she had a cough, even though that is also a symptom of heart failure.
“When the reality hit that I was in the COVID unit, I thought, ‘If I didn’t have it before, then I probably will now,'” Simpson said.
She spent a day there, wracked with anxiety. Six days later, back at home, she learned she had tested negative for the virus.
Simpson knows the hospitals have made many changes since the early days of the pandemic, but the thought of calling 911 still scares her.
“I have seen news reports that tell me it’s safer now. … I don’t know if I have full confidence in that right now,” she said. “The risk of COVID is terrifying.”
Dangerous Risks Of Postponing Care
Some physicians are already glimpsing the consequences of patients putting off care.
“I’ve never seen the number of delays that I have in the last month or so,” said Dr. Andrea Austin, an ER physician in downtown Los Angeles.
She’s treating more serious cases because patients are waiting. “That’s really one of the tragedies of COVID-19,” Austin said. “They’re staying at home and trying to diagnose themselves or really playing down their symptoms.”
Chowdhary, the neurosurgeon from Bellevue, Washington, said some of his stroke patients have already seen life-altering consequences.
One older man noticed weakness on the left side of his body but avoided the hospital for four days.
“Now, at that point, we couldn’t do anything to reverse the stroke,” Chowdhary said. “That weakness is permanent.”
Because of the stroke damage, the patient could no longer take care of his wife, who has cognitive issues. Eventually, the couple had to leave their home and move into a nursing home.
Jennifer Kurtz, stroke program coordinator at Overlake in Bellevue, said some patients who delayed care are now grappling with the physical and emotional toll.
“They feel so much guilt and regret that they didn’t come to the hospital earlier,” she said.
A caregiver confessed to Kurtz that she didn’t bring her husband to the hospital when she first noticed symptoms of a stroke.
“She can’t even tell her daughter [that] … because she is so ashamed,” Kurtz said.
Doctors Plead: ‘Don’t Delay’
Patients must navigate the sometimes conflicting messages from public officials as well as disruptions to their routine medical care.
The surge of COVID-19 patients in hot spots such as New York City and New Orleans led to “the sense of an overstretched health care system without capacity,” said Dr. Biykem Bozkurt, president of the Heart Failure Society of America and a cardiologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
“This may have created a false sentiment that routine care is to be deferred or that there is no capacity for non-COVID patients — this is not the case,” Bozkurt said. “We would like our patients to seek care, not wait.”
Hospitals are also trying to reassure patients they are taking precautions to keep them safe. Many have set up protocols for admitting suspected COVID-19 patients, such as separate screening areas inside the ER and dedicated areas of the hospital for coronavirus inpatients.
Tashman, the emergency physician at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, is pleading with patients to come in for help immediately for heart attack and stroke symptoms: “Don’t delay. You’re not bothering us. You’re not imposing on us.”
This story is part of a partnership that includes KPCC, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
Eerie Emptiness Of ERs Worries Doctors As Heart Attack And Stroke Patients Delay Care published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/
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stephenmccull · 4 years
Text
Eerie Emptiness Of ERs Worries Doctors As Heart Attack And Stroke Patients Delay Care
The patient described it as the worst headache of her life. She didn’t go to the hospital, though. Instead, the Washington state resident waited almost a week.
When Dr. Abhineet Chowdhary finally saw her, he discovered she had a brain bleed that had gone untreated.
The neurosurgeon did his best, but it was too late.
“As a result, she had multiple other strokes and ended up passing away,” said Chowdhary, director of the Overlake Neuroscience Institute in Bellevue, Washington. “This is something that most of the time we’re able to prevent.”
Chowdhary said the patient, a stroke survivor in her mid-50s, had told him she was frightened of the hospital.
She was afraid of the coronavirus.
The fallout from such fear has concerned U.S. doctors for weeks while they have tracked a worrying trend: As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the number of patients showing up at hospitals with serious cardiovascular emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks shrank dramatically.
Across the U.S., doctors call the drop-off staggering, unlike anything they’ve seen. And they worry a new wave of patients is headed their way — people who have delayed care and will be sicker and whose injuries will be exacerbated by the time they finally arrive in emergency rooms.
It has alarmed certain medical groups, such as the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. The latter is running ads to urge people to call 911 when they’re having symptoms of a heart attack or stroke.
‘Where Are All These Patients?’
Across the country, ER volumes are down about 40% to 50%, said Dr. William Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
“I haven’t seen anything like it, ever,” he said. “We anticipated, actually, higher volumes.”
But doctors say once-busy emergency rooms have slowed to an eerie calm.
“It was very scary because it was so quiet,” Dr. David Tashman, medical director of the ER at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, California, said about the early days of the outbreak.
“We normally see 100 patients a day, and then, you know, overnight, we were down to 30 or 40.”
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Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.
Sign Up
Please confirm your email address below:
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Some of that decrease in normal patient volume was deliberate.
As hospitals prepared for a surge of COVID patients, officials advised people to avoid emergency rooms if at all possible. Tashman said he wasn’t surprised to see fewer trauma patients, because the roads were emptier. But soon he and other ER physicians noticed that even truly urgent cases were not coming in.
“We know the number of heart attacks isn’t going to go down in a pandemic. It really shouldn’t,” Tashman said.
Dr. Larry Stock, an ER doctor at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, California, thought the same thing.
“I mean, we’ve all been scratching our heads — where are all these patients?” Stock said. “They’re at home, and we’re starting to get … the tip of the iceberg of this phenomenon.”
One study collected data from nine hospitals across the country, focusing on a crucial procedure used to reopen a blocked cardiac artery after a heart attack. The hospitals performed 38% fewer of those procedures in March than in previous months.
At Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Dr. Malveeka Sharma has tracked a 60% decline in stroke admissions in the first half of April compared with the previous year.
Nationally, 911 call volumes for strokes and heart attacks declined in March through early April, according to data collected by ESO, a software company used by emergency medical service agencies.
In Connecticut, Dr. Kevin Sheth noticed a similar trend at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Sheth started calling other stroke doctors, trying to understand what was happening.
“The numbers had dramatically plummeted almost everywhere,” said Sheth, chief of the division of neurocritical care and emergency neurology at Yale School of Medicine. “This is a big deal from a public health perspective.”
Sheth said clinical stroke centers have seen an “unprecedented” drop in stroke patients being treated, with decreases from 50% to 70%.
In April, the American Heart and American Stroke associations put out emergency guidance to ensure health care providers keep stroke teams active and ready to treat patients during the pandemic.
Sheth said he worries it could be challenging to care for all the patients who eventually show up at hospitals in even worse shape after delaying care.
“When those stroke numbers come back, we could have serious capacity issues,” he said. “We were already bursting at the seams.”
“People are in this fear mode,” said Dr. John Harold, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and board president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Heart Association.
Harold said the full public health consequences of people avoiding the hospital aren’t yet clear.
“The big question is, are these people dying at home?” he asked.
Patients Fear The Hospital
Patients who are already at higher risk of experiencing medical emergencies describe a mix of fear and confusion about how to get safe and adequate care.
In March, Dustin Domzalski ran out of his epilepsy medication.
The 35-year-old from Bellingham, Washington, had trouble reaching his doctor, whom he would normally see in person, to get a refill.
Within a few days of not taking the medication, he had a major seizure while in the shower. His caregiver called an ambulance, which took him to the ER.
“I woke up and asked where I was and what happened,” Domzalski said. “The guy in the next room to me was coughing and doing all kinds of stuff.”
The experience was so unnerving that Domzalski now plans to avoid the hospital if at all possible.
“I am not going to the hospital unless I have a seizure and injure myself,” he said. “I’d rather stay here than potentially have problems from the virus.”
Miami resident Stayc Simpson recalled a frightening ordeal when she went to the ER in mid-March.
Simpson, a cancer survivor with heart failure, woke up with a pounding heart rate that she worried could signal a heart attack.
At the hospital, she was screened for COVID-19 and was soon moved to a unit for suspected cases because she had a cough, even though that is also a symptom of heart failure.
“When the reality hit that I was in the COVID unit, I thought, ‘If I didn’t have it before, then I probably will now,'” Simpson said.
She spent a day there, wracked with anxiety. Six days later, back at home, she learned she had tested negative for the virus.
Simpson knows the hospitals have made many changes since the early days of the pandemic, but the thought of calling 911 still scares her.
“I have seen news reports that tell me it’s safer now. … I don’t know if I have full confidence in that right now,” she said. “The risk of COVID is terrifying.”
Dangerous Risks Of Postponing Care
Some physicians are already glimpsing the consequences of patients putting off care.
“I’ve never seen the number of delays that I have in the last month or so,” said Dr. Andrea Austin, an ER physician in downtown Los Angeles.
She’s treating more serious cases because patients are waiting. “That’s really one of the tragedies of COVID-19,” Austin said. “They’re staying at home and trying to diagnose themselves or really playing down their symptoms.”
Chowdhary, the neurosurgeon from Bellevue, Washington, said some of his stroke patients have already seen life-altering consequences.
One older man noticed weakness on the left side of his body but avoided the hospital for four days.
“Now, at that point, we couldn’t do anything to reverse the stroke,” Chowdhary said. “That weakness is permanent.”
Because of the stroke damage, the patient could no longer take care of his wife, who has cognitive issues. Eventually, the couple had to leave their home and move into a nursing home.
Jennifer Kurtz, stroke program coordinator at Overlake in Bellevue, said some patients who delayed care are now grappling with the physical and emotional toll.
“They feel so much guilt and regret that they didn’t come to the hospital earlier,” she said.
A caregiver confessed to Kurtz that she didn’t bring her husband to the hospital when she first noticed symptoms of a stroke.
“She can’t even tell her daughter [that] … because she is so ashamed,” Kurtz said.
Doctors Plead: ‘Don’t Delay’
Patients must navigate the sometimes conflicting messages from public officials as well as disruptions to their routine medical care.
The surge of COVID-19 patients in hot spots such as New York City and New Orleans led to “the sense of an overstretched health care system without capacity,” said Dr. Biykem Bozkurt, president of the Heart Failure Society of America and a cardiologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
“This may have created a false sentiment that routine care is to be deferred or that there is no capacity for non-COVID patients — this is not the case,” Bozkurt said. “We would like our patients to seek care, not wait.”
Hospitals are also trying to reassure patients they are taking precautions to keep them safe. Many have set up protocols for admitting suspected COVID-19 patients, such as separate screening areas inside the ER and dedicated areas of the hospital for coronavirus inpatients.
Tashman, the emergency physician at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, is pleading with patients to come in for help immediately for heart attack and stroke symptoms: “Don’t delay. You’re not bothering us. You’re not imposing on us.”
This story is part of a partnership that includes KPCC, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
Eerie Emptiness Of ERs Worries Doctors As Heart Attack And Stroke Patients Delay Care published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/
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dinafbrownil · 4 years
Text
Eerie Emptiness Of ERs Worries Doctors As Heart Attack And Stroke Patients Delay Care
The patient described it as the worst headache of her life. She didn’t go to the hospital, though. Instead, the Washington state resident waited almost a week.
When Dr. Abhineet Chowdhary finally saw her, he discovered she had a brain bleed that had gone untreated.
The neurosurgeon did his best, but it was too late.
“As a result, she had multiple other strokes and ended up passing away,” said Chowdhary, director of the Overlake Neuroscience Institute in Bellevue, Washington. “This is something that most of the time we’re able to prevent.”
Chowdhary said the patient, a stroke survivor in her mid-50s, had told him she was frightened of the hospital.
She was afraid of the coronavirus.
The fallout from such fear has concerned U.S. doctors for weeks while they have tracked a worrying trend: As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the number of patients showing up at hospitals with serious cardiovascular emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks shrank dramatically.
Across the U.S., doctors call the drop-off staggering, unlike anything they’ve seen. And they worry a new wave of patients is headed their way — people who have delayed care and will be sicker and whose injuries will be exacerbated by the time they finally arrive in emergency rooms.
It has alarmed certain medical groups, such as the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. The latter is running ads to urge people to call 911 when they’re having symptoms of a heart attack or stroke.
‘Where Are All These Patients?’
Across the country, ER volumes are down about 40% to 50%, said Dr. William Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
“I haven’t seen anything like it, ever,” he said. “We anticipated, actually, higher volumes.”
But doctors say once-busy emergency rooms have slowed to an eerie calm.
“It was very scary because it was so quiet,” Dr. David Tashman, medical director of the ER at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, California, said about the early days of the outbreak.
“We normally see 100 patients a day, and then, you know, overnight, we were down to 30 or 40.”
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Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing.
Sign Up
Please confirm your email address below:
Sign Up
Some of that decrease in normal patient volume was deliberate.
As hospitals prepared for a surge of COVID patients, officials advised people to avoid emergency rooms if at all possible. Tashman said he wasn’t surprised to see fewer trauma patients, because the roads were emptier. But soon he and other ER physicians noticed that even truly urgent cases were not coming in.
“We know the number of heart attacks isn’t going to go down in a pandemic. It really shouldn’t,” Tashman said.
Dr. Larry Stock, an ER doctor at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, California, thought the same thing.
“I mean, we’ve all been scratching our heads — where are all these patients?” Stock said. “They’re at home, and we’re starting to get … the tip of the iceberg of this phenomenon.”
One study collected data from nine hospitals across the country, focusing on a crucial procedure used to reopen a blocked cardiac artery after a heart attack. The hospitals performed 38% fewer of those procedures in March than in previous months.
At Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Dr. Malveeka Sharma has tracked a 60% decline in stroke admissions in the first half of April compared with the previous year.
Nationally, 911 call volumes for strokes and heart attacks declined in March through early April, according to data collected by ESO, a software company used by emergency medical service agencies.
In Connecticut, Dr. Kevin Sheth noticed a similar trend at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Sheth started calling other stroke doctors, trying to understand what was happening.
“The numbers had dramatically plummeted almost everywhere,” said Sheth, chief of the division of neurocritical care and emergency neurology at Yale School of Medicine. “This is a big deal from a public health perspective.”
Sheth said clinical stroke centers have seen an “unprecedented” drop in stroke patients being treated, with decreases from 50% to 70%.
In April, the American Heart and American Stroke associations put out emergency guidance to ensure health care providers keep stroke teams active and ready to treat patients during the pandemic.
Sheth said he worries it could be challenging to care for all the patients who eventually show up at hospitals in even worse shape after delaying care.
“When those stroke numbers come back, we could have serious capacity issues,” he said. “We were already bursting at the seams.”
“People are in this fear mode,” said Dr. John Harold, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and board president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Heart Association.
Harold said the full public health consequences of people avoiding the hospital aren’t yet clear.
“The big question is, are these people dying at home?” he asked.
Patients Fear The Hospital
Patients who are already at higher risk of experiencing medical emergencies describe a mix of fear and confusion about how to get safe and adequate care.
In March, Dustin Domzalski ran out of his epilepsy medication.
The 35-year-old from Bellingham, Washington, had trouble reaching his doctor, whom he would normally see in person, to get a refill.
Within a few days of not taking the medication, he had a major seizure while in the shower. His caregiver called an ambulance, which took him to the ER.
“I woke up and asked where I was and what happened,” Domzalski said. “The guy in the next room to me was coughing and doing all kinds of stuff.”
The experience was so unnerving that Domzalski now plans to avoid the hospital if at all possible.
“I am not going to the hospital unless I have a seizure and injure myself,” he said. “I’d rather stay here than potentially have problems from the virus.”
Miami resident Stayc Simpson recalled a frightening ordeal when she went to the ER in mid-March.
Simpson, a cancer survivor with heart failure, woke up with a pounding heart rate that she worried could signal a heart attack.
At the hospital, she was screened for COVID-19 and was soon moved to a unit for suspected cases because she had a cough, even though that is also a symptom of heart failure.
“When the reality hit that I was in the COVID unit, I thought, ‘If I didn’t have it before, then I probably will now,'” Simpson said.
She spent a day there, wracked with anxiety. Six days later, back at home, she learned she had tested negative for the virus.
Simpson knows the hospitals have made many changes since the early days of the pandemic, but the thought of calling 911 still scares her.
“I have seen news reports that tell me it’s safer now. … I don’t know if I have full confidence in that right now,” she said. “The risk of COVID is terrifying.”
Dangerous Risks Of Postponing Care
Some physicians are already glimpsing the consequences of patients putting off care.
“I’ve never seen the number of delays that I have in the last month or so,” said Dr. Andrea Austin, an ER physician in downtown Los Angeles.
She’s treating more serious cases because patients are waiting. “That’s really one of the tragedies of COVID-19,” Austin said. “They’re staying at home and trying to diagnose themselves or really playing down their symptoms.”
Chowdhary, the neurosurgeon from Bellevue, Washington, said some of his stroke patients have already seen life-altering consequences.
One older man noticed weakness on the left side of his body but avoided the hospital for four days.
“Now, at that point, we couldn’t do anything to reverse the stroke,” Chowdhary said. “That weakness is permanent.”
Because of the stroke damage, the patient could no longer take care of his wife, who has cognitive issues. Eventually, the couple had to leave their home and move into a nursing home.
Jennifer Kurtz, stroke program coordinator at Overlake in Bellevue, said some patients who delayed care are now grappling with the physical and emotional toll.
“They feel so much guilt and regret that they didn’t come to the hospital earlier,” she said.
A caregiver confessed to Kurtz that she didn’t bring her husband to the hospital when she first noticed symptoms of a stroke.
“She can’t even tell her daughter [that] … because she is so ashamed,” Kurtz said.
Doctors Plead: ‘Don’t Delay’
Patients must navigate the sometimes conflicting messages from public officials as well as disruptions to their routine medical care.
The surge of COVID-19 patients in hot spots such as New York City and New Orleans led to “the sense of an overstretched health care system without capacity,” said Dr. Biykem Bozkurt, president of the Heart Failure Society of America and a cardiologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
“This may have created a false sentiment that routine care is to be deferred or that there is no capacity for non-COVID patients — this is not the case,” Bozkurt said. “We would like our patients to seek care, not wait.”
Hospitals are also trying to reassure patients they are taking precautions to keep them safe. Many have set up protocols for admitting suspected COVID-19 patients, such as separate screening areas inside the ER and dedicated areas of the hospital for coronavirus inpatients.
Tashman, the emergency physician at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital, is pleading with patients to come in for help immediately for heart attack and stroke symptoms: “Don’t delay. You’re not bothering us. You’re not imposing on us.”
This story is part of a partnership that includes KPCC, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/eerie-emptiness-of-er-worries-doctors-as-heart-attack-and-stroke-patients-delay-care/
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Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACC, FAHA, is an Exceptional Pediatric Cardiologist with UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists at Le Bonheur Outpatient Center in Memphis, Tennessee
Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACC, FAHA, is a well-versed pediatric cardiologist and cardiac researcher who diagnoses and treats patients at UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists located at Le Bonheur Outpatient Center - Main Campus in Memphis, Tennessee. UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists is a partnership between The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Furthermore, Dr. Towbin serves as Executive Co-Director of the Heart Institute and Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, Vice Chair of Pediatrics for Strategy Advancement at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and UT Health Science Center, Chief of Cardiology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (2015-present), Chief of Pediatric Cardiology and Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and St. Jude Chair in Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Prior to embracing his current endeavors in 2015, he served as Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, Chief of Pediatric Cardiology, and Co-Director of the Heart Institute Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio (2009-2015), Chief of Cardiology at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas (2003 to 2009), Professor of Pediatric Cardiology and Molecular & Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Huston, Texas (1998-2009), Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at Texas Children's Hospital (1985-2009), Associate Professor of Pediatric Cardiology and Molecular & Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine (1993-1998), and Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine (1989-1993). For more information about Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin, please visit http://www.lebonheur.org/find-a-doctor/physicians/towbin-jeffrey.dot.
As a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Towbin has dedicated training and unique experience in the diagnosis and treatment of acquired heart problems and congenital heart disease or malfunction in children. Throughout his many years of experience, he has upheld a steadfast commitment to the ethical and professional standards of his practice, as evidenced by his sterling record, and ensures an impeccable degree of patient satisfaction in all facets of his work. While at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, he successfully built one of the country’s largest and most well respected pediatric cardiology programs. “Clinically, Dr. Towbin has focused on cardiomyopathies and heart failure, cardiac transplantation, and cardiovascular genetics as his areas of expertise for his entire career. He has trained many of the leaders in these fields. Dr. Towbin’s research has focused on the genetics and mechanisms of cardiomyopathy and advanced heart failure, arrhythmias, as well as on inflammatory heart disease and their etiologies”, states the official website of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. “His research has been funded continuously since 1987 and he has trained more than 50 post-doctoral and 20 pre-doctoral students – many of whom now have high level academic faculty positions”, adds the same source. Dr. Towbin has co-authored more than 500 publications in well-established journals, has acted as a principal mentor for multiple K-Grant-funded trainees, and has served as a member of several T32 training grants. Dr. Towbin is the pioneer of the concept of pathway-focused candidate gene analysis using the “final common pathway hypothesis” and calls his work in understanding how heart muscle turns into heart muscle disease, or cardiomyopathy, his most important research work to date. For more information about Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin, please visit http://www.lebonheur.org/find-a-doctor/physicians/towbin-jeffrey.dot.    
Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACC, FAHA, attended the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was awarded his medical degree in 1982. His internship was served at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine/Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (1982-1983), which was followed by his pediatric residency conducted at the same educational venue, i.e. the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine/Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (1983-1985). Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin is fellowship trained in pediatric cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas (1985-1989). He received board certification in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology from the American Board of Pediatrics and remains at the forefront of his challenging specialty via memberships and affiliations with prestigious professional societies and associations, such as the Society for Pediatric Research, the International Society of Heart & Lung Transplantation, the Heart Failure Society of America, the International Society for Pediatric Mechanical Cardiopulmonary Support, the Heart Rhythm Society, the International Society of Cardiomyopathies and Heart Failure, American Association of Physicians and Surgeons. Moreover, Dr. Towbin attained fellowship of the American Academy of Pediatrics, fellowship of the American College of Cardiology, and fellowship of the American Heart Association. In addition to his medical degree, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology (1974) and a Master of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology (1977) acquired at the University of Cincinnati. For more information about Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin, please visit https://www.findatopdoc.com/doctor/8133765-Jeffrey-Towbin-cardiologist-pediatric-Memphis-Tennessee-38105.
Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD, FAAP, FACC, FAHA, has an impressive professional journey that spans twenty-nine years and has expanse knowledge and unrivaled expertise in diagnostic and therapeutic advances for cardiomyopathies (heart muscle disease), heart failure, heart transplantation, and cardiovascular genetics. Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin was honored with the Richard D. Rowe Award with The Society for Pediatric Research (1991), the Young Investigator Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Cardiology (1993), the Pfizer Visiting Professorship in Cardiovascular Medicine (1997), Distinguished Service Award, American Heart Association (1998), the Michael DeBakey Excellence in Research Award (2003), the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Wall of Honor (2004), the American College of Cardiology Distinguished Scientist Award (Basic), the American Heart Association T. Duckett Jones Lecturer (2007), Council on Cardiovascular Disease of the Young (CVDY), the American Heart Association Meritorious Achievement Award (2010), the Simon Dack Award from the American College of Cardiology (2012), the American Heart Association Basic Research Prize (2013), the Castle Connolly America's Top Doctors (2017, 2018), and the Patients' Choice Award (2014). He feels that his success is attributable primarily to his strong ethic, forward thinking, and planning, and dedicates his spare time to listening to music. For more information about Dr. Jeffrey A. Towbin, please visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-towbin-58438515.
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advancedcardiodr · 6 years
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Best Cardiologist in The Woodlands
One of the most important organs in the body is the heart. It serves many functions and along with the brain, is critical in keeping us alive. In order to better understand the heart and all its functions, we look to cardiology experts to help us keep our heart and all its surrounding components healthy. To know more: https://advancedcardiodr.com/ — at Advanced Cardiovascular Care Center.
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Dr. Annie the best cardiologist in Houston providing cardiac services with a team of highly experienced cardiologists. Our heart clinic in Houston is one of the best cardiac hospitals with a team of experienced cardiology doctors. 
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biofunmy · 5 years
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Surgery for Blocked Arteries Is Often Unwarranted, Researchers Find
The findings of a large federal study on bypass surgeries and stents call into question the medical care provided to tens of thousands of heart disease patients with blocked coronary arteries, scientists reported at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association on Saturday.
The new study found that patients who received drug therapy alone did not experience more heart attacks or die more often than those who also received bypass surgery or stents, tiny wire cages used to open narrowed arteries.
That finding held true for patients with several severely blocked coronary arteries. Stenting and bypass procedures, however, did help some patients with intractable chest pain, called angina.
“You would think that if you fix the blockage the patient will feel better or do better,” said Dr. Alice Jacobs, director of Cath Lab and Interventional Cardiology at Boston University. The study, she added, “certainly will challenge our clinical thinking.”
This is far from the first study to suggest that stents and bypass are overused. But previous results have not deterred doctors, who have called earlier research on the subject inconclusive and the design of the trials flawed.
Previous studies did not adequately control for risk factors, like LDL cholesterol, that might have affected outcomes, said Dr. Elliott Antman, a senior physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Nor did those trials include today’s improved stents, which secrete drugs intended to prevent opened arteries from closing again.
With its size and rigorous design, the new study, called Ischemia, was intended to settle questions about the benefits of stents and bypass.
“This is an extraordinarily important trial,” said Dr. Glenn Levine, director of cardiac care at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
The results will be incorporated into treatment guidelines, added Dr. Levine, who sits on the guidelines committee of the American Heart Association.
The participants in Ischemia were not experiencing a heart attack, like Senator Bernie Sanders, nor did they have blockages of the left main coronary artery, two situations in which opening arteries with stents can be lifesaving. Instead, the patients had narrowed arteries that were discovered with exercise stress tests.
With 5,179 participants followed for a median of three and a half years, Ischemia is the largest trial to address the effect of opening blocked arteries in nonemergency situations and the first to include today’s powerful drug regimens, which doctors refer to as medical therapy.
All the patients had moderate to severe blockages in coronary arteries. Most had some history of chest pain, although one in three had no chest pain in the month before enrollment in the study. One in five experienced chest pain at least once a week.
All participants were regularly counseled to adhere to medical therapy. Depending on the patient’s condition, the therapy variously included high doses of statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs, blood pressure medications, aspirin and, for those with heart damage, a drug to slow the heart rate. Those who got stents also took powerful anti-clotting drugs for six months to a year.
Patients were randomly assigned to have medical therapy alone or an intervention and medical therapy. Of those in the intervention group, three-quarters received stents; the others received bypass surgery.
The number of deaths among those who had stents or bypass was 145, compared to 144 among the patients who received medication alone. The number of patients who had heart attacks was 276 in the stent and bypass group, compared with 314 in the medication group, an insignificant difference.
Dr. Judith Hochman, senior associate dean of clinical sciences at N.Y.U. Langone Health and chair of the study, had expected that those with the most severe chest pain and blockages would benefit from stents or bypass.
But “there was no suggestion that any subgroup benefited,” she said.
Ischemia’s results are consistent with current understanding of heart disease. Researchers have learned that a patient with a narrowed artery may have plaques not just in a single blocked area, but throughout the coronary arteries.
There is no way to predict which of those plaques will break open and cause a heart attack. Stents and bypass treat only areas that are obviously narrowed, but medical therapy treats the entire arterial system.
Yet when a cardiologist sees a blockage, the temptation for doctor and patient alike is to get rid of it quickly, said Dr. David Maron, director of preventive cardiology at Stanford University, the study’s other co-chair.
When an exercise stress test indicates a narrowing, most doctors send patients to a cardiac catheterization lab to look for blockages, Dr. Maron said. If there is a blockage, the usual practice is to open it with a stent.
If stenting is not feasible — because of the configuration of the patient’s arteries, for example — bypass surgery is usually the next step.
Patients with abnormal stress tests should talk to their doctors about the options, Dr. Maron said. If a patient has chest pain despite taking recommended medications, a stent or bypass might help improve quality of life.
Still, he said, patients have time to make considered decisions.
“You don’t have to rush to the cath lab because, OMG, you will have a heart attack soon or drop dead,” Dr. Maron said. “If you have had no angina in the last month, there is no benefit to an invasive strategy.”
Stenting costs an average of $25,000 per patient; bypass surgery costs an average of $45,000 in the United States. The nation could save more than $775 million a year by not giving stents to the 31,000 patients who get the devices even though they have no chest pain, Dr. Hochman said.
But the conventional wisdom among cardiologists is that the sort of medical therapy that patients got in Ischemia is just not feasible in the real world, said Dr. William E. Boden, scientific director of the clinical trials network at VA Boston Healthcare System, who was a member of the study’s leadership committee.
Doctors often say that making sure patients adhere to the therapy is “too demanding, and we don’t have time for it,” he said.
But getting a stent does not obviate the need for medical therapy, Dr. Boden noted. Since patients with stents need an additional anti-clotting drug, they actually wind up taking more medication than patients who are treated with drugs alone.
About a third of stent patients develop chest pain again within 30 days to six months and end up with receiving another stent, Dr. Boden added.
“We have to finally get past the whining about how hard optimal medical therapy is and begin in earnest to educate our patients as to what works and is effective and what isn’t,” Dr. Boden said.
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nelsonshake · 5 years
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Future Plans for Isla
With our last bit of great news about Isla’s heart, I didn’t include much of what will be ahead for her. And since many of our friends here in town have been asking me that, I figured we should put such information here as well.
What’s Next? At our April appointment with Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) in Houston, Dr. Riley said he wanted Isla to have another echocardiogram in October. He noted that if her heart looks as good then as it does now, he suspects we can probably start doing heart scans once a year instead of every six months.
That next echo won’t happen in Houston. We are moving to Savannah, Georgia, in July for me to start a job teaching at the Savannah College of Art and Design (or, SCAD). I’m in the process of setting up a pediatric cardiologist for Isla in Savannah and scheduling her October heart scan with them.
What About Surgery? As we mentioned in the last post, surgery is not fully out of the picture. It could still be something Isla needs if certain complications pop up. If that does end up being the case three, five, or even ten years down the road, we would fly back to Houston for surgery to be handled by TCH. They’re the best pediatric cardiology unit in the nation, they’re intimately familiar with Isla’s case, and we trust them.
That said, any cardiologist can do an echo and EKG, and though we will do those tests in Savannah, all results would continue to be shared with Dr. Riley and his team. That way, they can stay up to date on Isla’s condition from afar and continue to communicate with us about any positive or negative things they see developing.
In other words, if Isla does need surgery later, TCH will be the ones making that call, not our cardiologists in Georgia.
So, that’s where we are for now. We are grateful to be able to devote mental and emotional energy toward other things—preparing for our move eastward, a new job, and our baby boy’s arrival in August.
You know, just a few things.
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cracklook1-blog · 6 years
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Salt restriction lacks credible evidence
“Don’t worry, Doc. I eat really well. I completely avoid salt so I’m good.” I hear this multiple times per day. It is ingrained in our mindset that we need to avoid salt to be healthy. This must be steeper in solid, unquestionable scientific evidence, right?
Not even close. Just as we have learned from the faulty science behind demonizing fat, we can say the same for salt.
The New York Times: Scant evidence behind the advice about salt
The American Heart Association recommends the general population eat less than 2.3 grams of sodium per day, with higher risk and heart failure patients eating less than 1.5 grams per day. That is less than a teaspoon of salt for the entire day! This recommendation is based on studies such as the DASH trial that showed a small blood pressure reduction in certain subsets of people with a low sodium diet. There was no outcome data to demonstrate fewer heart attacks or deaths, but the assumption was that it would lead to those unproven benefits. In addition, the studies don’t differentiate between sodium in a bag of potato chips versus Celtic sea salt added to steamed veggies with olive oil.
Interestingly, those same studies also showed high potassium diets reduce blood pressure and negate any benefit from sodium reductions. Yet that has not been promoted as much as low sodium.
In order to better understand the quality of evidence behind salt restriction, a recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine investigated all the randomized controlled trials investigating sodium restriction in heart failure patients. Their findings were shocking.
Only nine studies were of high enough quality to meet inclusion criteria, and the studies showed conflicting results. Salt restriction is one of the most commonly accepted “truths” in cardiology, and yet there are only nine conflicting studies to support it. That truly is shocking.
While this does not prove salt is unimportant in heart failure or hypertension, it does emphasize the importance of understanding the strength of evidence behind recommendations.
The counter argument is that the strength of evidence does not matter as there is no harm from salt restriction, and all cardiologists have anecdotal evidence of someone who had a high salt meal and ended up in the hospital with a heart failure exacerbation. While anecdotal experience is important, it does confuse our recommendations for general populations. That is where we need more extensive research.
More importantly, it turns out there may be a risk to recommending a low-salt diet. The PURE study, a large observational trial in almost 100,000 subjects, showed the highest mortality rates both in diets above 6 grams of sodium per day and below 3 grams per day. This was an observational study so it does not prove it was the sodium ingestion driving the mortality rates, but it should be enough to question recommending less than 1.5 grams per day without good evidence to do so.
Other potential harms are that restricting sodium may divert attention from more effective interventions such as increasing natural potassium containing foods (i.e. real food vegetables) and avoiding processed foods and simple carbohydrates. Last, it is really hard to restrict sodium to less than 1.5 grams per day. Most people cannot maintain it. It sets people up for failure, which can be demoralizing and cause people to give up.
As there is a real world cost to restricting sodium, we should be confident that the science backs the recommendation. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case. Instead of falsely restricting salt equally for all individuals, we should focus on promoting eating patterns that we can maintain for the long term. Focus on real foods first, and then address the specific salt and macro components for each individual.
Thanks for reading, Bret Scher, MD FACC
Earlier
The truth about salt
The Doctors: Could salt actually not be harmful to your health?
Cardiologist in Houston Chronicle: ‘Want a healthier heart? Eat a steak’
Source: https://www.dietdoctor.com/salt-restriction-lacks-credible-evidence
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ronaldxjen82 · 6 years
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The Amount Of Caffeine Is Not Specified In Dietary Supplements For The Military
The Amount Of Caffeine Is Not Specified In Dietary Supplements For The Military. A unique lucubrate finds that popular appurtenance pills and powders found for sale at many military bases, including those that claim to boost energy and restraint weight, often fail to properly describe their caffeine levels. Some of these products - also sold at health-food stores across the county - didn't equip any information about caffeine on their labels notwithstanding being packed with it, and others had more or much less caffeine than their labels indicated. "Fewer than half of the supplements had unerring and useful information about caffeine on the label," said study lead author Dr Pieter Cohen, subordinate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "If you're looking for these products to staff boost your performance, some aren't going to work and you're contemporary to be disappointed consultation. And some have much more caffeine than on the label". Researchers launched the study, funded by the US Department of Defense, to sum up to existing knowledge about how much caffeine is being consumed by members of the military. Athletes and members of the navy face a risk of health problems when they consume too much caffeine and exercise in the heat viagra khila ke chote bhai ki gand mari. Cohen emphasized that the supplements were purchased in civilian stores: "Why is it that 25 percent of the products labels with caffeine had inexact word at a mainstream supplement retailer"? He also explained the specific military concern. "We already be acquainted with that troops are drinking a lot of coffee and using a lot of energy drinks and shots. Forty-five percent of agile troops were using energy drinks on a daily basis while they were in Afghanistan and Iraq true male enhancement products. We're talking about munificent amounts of caffeine consumed, and our question is: What's going on on top of that?". In the worst-case scenario, community could become jittery and even develop rapid heartbeats if they use the supplements in conjunction with other caffeine products such as vitality drinks or coffee, said Dr John Higgins, who studies caffeine as the chieftain of cardiology at Houston's Lyndon B Johnson General Hospital. The study has some holes, however. For one, it didn't put one's finger on the 31 supplements that it examined. The researchers said only that they're the most dominant supplements sold as pills on military bases with labels that indicate that they contain either caffeine or herbal ingredients that include caffeine. Of the 31 supplements, 20 listed caffeine on their labels. Of those 20, only nine correctly listed the amount, according to the researchers. Five listed amounts between 27 percent and 113 percent off from the physical amount. Six products listed caffeine as an makings but didn't affirm how much. The researchers found that they had 210 to 310 milligrams per serving - the same magnitude that is in two to three cups of coffee. People often slug coffee or take energy supplements to become more alert, and Cohen said it's true that the caffeine in two to three cups of coffee can get better performance. But people lose the assistance at about five cups. What to do? Higgins, the Texas cardiologist, said manufacturers call for to be required to state properly how much caffeine is in supplements, and the amounts need to be independently verified. Another first-rate said that giving consumers consistent, accurate information could benefit their health. "If consumers had a better dream about how much caffeine they were getting from various sources - from energy drinks and supplements - they would count it up. They would learn notice and realize that they may be overdoing it," said pharmacist Philip Gregory, managing editor of the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database jual proextender faisalabad. The study appeared in the Jan 7, 2013 dissemination of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
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alamante · 6 years
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HOUSTON (AP) — A cardiologist who once treated former President George H.W. Bush was fatally shot by a fellow bicyclist Friday while riding through a Houston medical complex, and police were trying to determine if the shooting was random or a targeted act.
The shooting happened around 9 a.m. as Dr. Mark Hausknecht was going northbound through the Texas Medical Center, said Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Troy Finner.
“The suspect was on a bicycle as well. Rode past the doctor, turned and fired two shots. The doctor immediately went down,” Finner said. Hausknecht, 65, hit at least once, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died.
Hausknecht was going in to work at Houston Methodist Hospital when he was shot, the hospital’s CEO said in an email to staff.
The area where the shooting took place is part of a 1,345-acre complex of hospitals and medical institutions, including the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and is busy with traffic and pedestrians during the day.
Authorities late Friday continued searching for the suspect, who was wearing a gray warmup jacket, khaki shorts and a tan baseball cap. Hausknecht treated Bush in February 2000 for an irregular heartbeat after the ex-president complained about lightheadedness while visiting Florida.
The cardiologist appeared with Bush at a news conference after his treatment. Bush on Friday offered his condolences to Hausknecht’s family. “Mark was a fantastic cardiologist and a good man,” Bush said in a statement. “I will always be grateful for his exceptional, compassionate care.”
Hausknecht had been in medical practice for almost 40 years and specialized in cardiovascular disease, said Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist Hospital. Hausknecht was part of the hospital’s medical staff as well as its DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center.
“His patients appreciated his kind bedside manner and the extra time he took to answer their questions and fully explain their condition and treatment,” Boom said in an email to employees on Friday. “Our employees who worked with him said patients were so proud to call him their doctor.”
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netmyname-blog · 6 years
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Ameen Stainbac TX
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