Issue link: https://blog.providence.org/i/1508569
10 | Health Matters: Providence Mission Hospital Ihab Alomari, MD, is a board-certified interventional cardiologist who specializes in cutting- edge, minimally invasive heart surgeries such as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and placement of mitral clips. Dr. Alomari is happy to help patients avoid the trauma and lengthy recovery of open- chest surgery. "With minimally invasive procedures, patients walk the same day as the surgery and go home the next morning," he notes, adding that he values the opportunity to build relationships with his patients. Is there any risk factor for heart disease that you wish people were more aware of? Stress. Patients who have more stress in their life are more prone to have heart disease or cardiovascular disease in general, including strokes. What screening tests do you recommend to identify possible heart disease? First, you should have a general evaluation for all the risk factors that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. That means a routine check for cholesterol, for diabetes, for blood pressure. Heart disease is a consequence of other problems in the body that affect the heart, meaning patients who have high cholesterol end up having cardiovascular disease. When they have high blood pressure, they end up having heart attacks and strokes. If they have diabetes, that will affect the heart and can cause heart attacks and strokes. Beyond that, tests for cardiovascular disease depend on the patient's symptoms, meaning that if the patient has symptoms, then we might do a stress test, for example, to determine if there are any blockages in the heart's arteries. If the patient doesn't have symptoms, but they have risk factors and a family history of heart disease, we can do what we call a calcium score. How useful is a coronary calcium score in predicting heart problems? The calcium score is very helpful. It determines how much calcification is in the coronary arteries, and that will indirectly predict the likelihood of future heart attacks or strokes. It's basically a CT scan with no contrast that shows us the burden of plaque in the arteries. What are some subtle symptoms that suggest that a person should see a cardiologist? We all know that the typical symptoms are chest pain and shortness of breath, but sometimes the person is just exhausted. They feel tired all the time. If they want to do something, they don't feel the energy to do it. Another subtle symptom is decreased exercise tolerance. Maybe you used to walk, for example, 30 minutes, and now you can do Dr. Ihab Alomari Surprising Cardiac Facts Heart expert Dr. Ihab Alomari discusses how you can recognize heart disease symptoms early and what kind of screenings you need.