Keeping your Heart Healthy
More than 58 million Americans suffer from cardiovascular disease and many more are at risk of developing it. More than one million people have a heart attack each year, and another 300,000 will experience actual cardiac arrest.
Pillay Internal Medicine provides a full range of diagnostic services to prevent, diagnose, and formulate treatment plans for heart disease and stroke.
Cardiac Testing
An echocardiogram (ECHO) is a sonogram of the heart. In addition to creating two-dimensional pictures of the cardiovascular system, an echocardiogram can also produce accurate assessment of the velocity of blood and cardiac tissue using pulses or continuous waves which allows assessment of cardiac valve areas and heart function. The biggest advantage to echocardiogram is that it is noninvasive and has no know risks or side effects. It evaluates the architecture and function of the heart.
Echocardiogram assists in the diagnostic findings of:
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Assess the heart’s pumping capacity and location and extent of any damage to its tissues.
- Assessing diseases of the heart valves.
- Allows doctors to evaluate the heart valves and detect abnormalities in the pattern of
- blood flow such as the backward flow of blood through partly closed heart valves
- called regurgitation.
- Cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease)
An electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG), a painless test in which sensors are affixed to your chest, helps your doctor understand and monitor your heart’s health. It is a snapshot of your heart’s electrical activity that can determine the cause of chest pain, or other symptoms related to heart disease, like shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting, or an irregular heartbeat.
A Holter monitor continuously records a patient’s EKG for a 24-hour period. Worn during regular daily activities, it helps your doctor correlate symptoms of dizziness, palpitations, or black outs with your heart’s electrical activity.
Stress Test
The stress test involves walking on a treadmill or pedaling a stationary bike at increasing levels of difficulty while your electrocardiogram, heart rate, and blood pressure are monitored. It helps to determine if there is adequate blood flow to your heart during strenuous activity, tests the effectiveness of medications or procedures that may have been performed, and tells your doctor if further evaluation is needed.
