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

We don't just say we're good; we’ve proven it. We have received Core Certification for Chest Pain from The Joint Commission. The gold seal is a symbol of quality that reflects our commitment to providing safe and effective patient care. It recognizes our ability to rapidly diagnose and treat chest pain, assess patients and ensure staff training and competency.

The Joint Commission evaluated our compliance with national chest pain and disease care standards. They also assessed our clinical practice and guidelines. The result is an award that establishes us as a leader in cardiovascular care in Deep East Texas, distinguishing us from other facilities in the area.

Our Chest Pain Center demonstrates expertise in:

Assessing, diagnosing and treating patients quickly
Continually improving processes and procedures
Effectively treating patients with low risk for acute coronary syndrome and no assignable cause for their symptoms
Ensuring Chest Pain Center personnel competency and training
Having a functional design that promotes optimal patient care
Integrating the emergency department with the local emergency medical system
Maintaining organizational structure and commitment
Supporting community outreach programs that educate the public to promptly seek medical care if they display symptoms of a possible heart attack