Heart Disease
Heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide. When you need heart help fast, our chest pain team is here to deliver life-saving care. As an accredited chest pain hospital, we’re close to where you live and work and ready to serve you
within minutes with excellent, rapid and compassionate heart care. That’s how we care.
Request a Cardiologist Referral
Every Minute Matters
When you need help fast, our accredited Chest Pain team is here to deliver life-saving care close to home. Our primary goal is to ensure patients get the treatment they need during the early onset of a heart attack. This means reducing the time between
a patient’s arrival at our emergency department and getting treatment to prevent further heart damage.
What Is Heart Disease?
Heart disease is an umbrella term for various heart conditions such as:
- Arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat
- Atherosclerosis or the hardening of the arteries
- Cardiomyopathy or the weakening or hardening of the heart’s muscles
- Coronary heart disease (CAD) or ischemic heart disease
- Heart irregularities present at birth
- Heart attack
- Heart failure
- Heart infections
- Heart valve diseases;
- Stroke
More than 800,000 people die yearly from heart diseases, stroke and other vascular diseases. If you have any of the following risk factors for heart disease, visit a cardiologist in Nacogdoches, TX:
- Clinical depression
- Diabetes or insulin resistance
- Excessive drinking
- Family history of heart disease
- High blood pressure&
- High cholesterol level
- Obesity
- Physical inactivity
- Smoking
- Stress
- Unhealthy diet
What Are the Symptoms of Heart Disease?
Some people do not experience symptoms of heart disease until it is too late. We recommend that you regularly visit a heart doctor for early diagnosis and prevention. Here are some of the things you may experience when heart disease shows signs:
- Anxiety
- Back pain
- Chest pain
- Cold sweats
- Dizziness or fainting
- Heart palpitations
- Jaw pain
- Nausea or vomiting
- Shortness of breath
What Causes a Heart Attack?
A heart attack or myocardial infarction is a life-threatening condition that happens when a part of the heart gets blocked, preventing it from getting an oxygen-rich blood supply. It needs immediate medical attention to restore blood flow as soon as possible.
Otherwise, the oxygen-deprived part of the heart will start dying.
What Are the Symptoms of a Heart Attack?
If you observe these early warning signs of a heart attack in yourself or a loved one, call 911. Symptoms include:
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Feeling lightheaded or weak
- Pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck or back as well as in one or both arms or shoulders
- Shortness of break
- Unusual nausea, fatigue or vomiting
Diagnosing Cardiovascular Disease
Our cardiologists will review your medical history, conduct physical examinations and may request cardiovascular tests to diagnose and assess your heart condition properly. Here are some of the heart tests we perform:
- 4-hour Holter monitors – a heart rate monitor to check heart activities for more extended periods
- 30-day event recorders – a device you can tap to record your heart activity whenever you experience symptoms
- Arterial vascular study lower extremity – to check blood flow in your lower extremity arteries
- Echocardiogram (EEG) – track and record brain wave patterns through electrodes attached to you
- Electrocardiogram (ECG) – to record the heart’s electrical activity
- Exercise stress test – to monitor heart activity while you walk or run on a treadmill with heart-monitoring equipment attached to you
- Dobutamine stress test with echocardiography imaging or nuclear imaging – uses dobutamine medication to artificially increase heartbeat to be assessed by echocardiography or nuclear imaging
- Lexiscan stress test – obstruction in the coronary arteries is identified by using Lexiscan to dilate these arteries
- Trans-esophageal echocardiogram (TEE) – uses sound waves to get detailed photos of the heart and arteries
Treatments We Offer
If you are diagnosed with a cardiovascular condition, your physician may recommend lifestyle changes and certain medications, along with any of the following heart disease treatment options:
- Angioplasty – opening a clogged or narrowed coronary artery
- Artificial heart valve surgery – replacing or repairing diseased heart valves
- Atherectomy – cutting away the plaque buildup in the arteries before placing a stent to keep the artery open
- Bypass surgery – improving blood flow to the heart by using blood vessels taken from other parts of the body to bypass damaged arteries
- Minimally invasive heart surgery – uses small incisions as an alternative to open heart surgery
- Stent procedure – installing a wire mesh tube into a clogged coronary artery to keep it open
Accredited Chest Pain Center
