Cardiologist FAQ Osceola Regional Medical Center

Time is short when a patient is having a heart attack. Accessing the heart through the femoral artery in one's leg is not always the best option. Our hospital can utilize the radial artery in the wrist to provide swift, lifesaving treament for STEMI

Robert Schiller is the first patient to receive Radial STEMI at CFCVI. He shares his expereince.

What ablation is practically it can mean two things, exactly you burn the electrical circuit or you freeze the electrical circuit. I give my patients examples of soldering it's like when you solder to metal, you hold it together. So it's pretty much a specialized wire. / The way the procedure is once the you are past the simple stuff, taking medication, you re-do an electrical study of the heart what is called an EP study an Electrophysiology study where this is normally done under an conscious sedation through your groin ,a couple of wires are placed in your heart in strategic locations basically we look to find out where is the short circuit and if we prove what the different areas it can be based on its location it can be burnt. / What it is, is a special kind of wire where we heat and burn the tissue there distorting the short circuit, we can also freeze it using a cooling technology.

Lifestyle changes after a heart attack are vital. Adequately changing lifestyle can definitely prevent a second heart attack. The only factor that puts a person at risk for a heart attack is our family history that we cannot change. Everything else can be changed. / We can lose weight and thereby reduce our blood sugars and blood pressure. We could quit smoking, we could take medications faithfully to lower cholesterol, take blood thinners, and we could exercise regularly.

I have seen woman confusing anxiety with heart attack or angina but I have seen also with is pretty typical woman confusing acid reflux with heart disease and in fact they may be having a very significant coronary lesion after we do the cardiac catheterization so it is very important that the woman if she has high risk factors like diabetes, hypertension, lymphedema and they have symptoms that may or may not be heart disease, better to err on the side of testing that woman because we may miss an important diagnosis because we may be missing a heart attack if we just attribute that the patient has anxiety or acid reflux.

A well-toned athlete can have a heart rate in his 50s and 60s and he is exercising, because of you---when you run when you exercise your heartbeat goes up to 120-150 because of---ataxia. / But if you do have a heart rate out of the blue that is suddenly starts pounding, is going too fast, you feel dizzy or your symptomatic you have blurry vision or whatever happens that way, then it is a case for concern. / What that means is that the electrical signals of your heart are actually going through a different to keep it very simple going through a different electrical circuit where your heart rate is beating anywhere from 130-140-150 to 200 beats a minute. That is what is called a arrhythmia, there are 3 or 4 different types of it based on an EKG which is an electrocardiogram or based on a holder monitor which is an extended period of an EKG which you wear for a couple of days, we will be able to have a rough idea as to where that short circuit is based. / Treatment options for these vary; always the basic rule is you try noninvasive factor trying simple medications but as electrophysiology and a physician of the heart a lot of these things have evolved quite a bit right now in the terms they can be safely and effectively ablation.