According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), every 34 seconds, somebody in the United States dies from cardiovascular disease. Heart disease doesn’t discriminate. Every gender, as well as most races and ethnicities, can succumb.
About one in every 20 women and men over the age of 20 years in the U.S. has coronary artery disease (CAD). Many don’t know it. You’re at increased risk if you:
Your genetics also affect your risk. If someone in your family has CAD or died from a heart attack, you may be at increased risk yourself.
Our expert cardiologist, Dr. Ola Akinboboye, encourages all adults to monitor their heart health with a simple yearly cardiology exam. At our Laurelton Heart Specialists offices in Rosedale, Queens, New York, we offer stress testing and other tests to evaluate your heart health and make customized recommendations.
Why is the end of the year a great time for an annual health exam? Find out how a simple exam can help inform your coming year.
A cardiology exam doesn't have to be high-tech. Some of the most basic tools we have can give your doctor a good insight into your heart’s health. Starting at age 20 years, most women and men should receive the following tests:
We also take a complete personal and family history during your exam to ensure you’re not at an elevated risk. Based on the results of these simple tests, as well as your family and personal history, we may recommend additional tests.
Both the electrocardiogram (EKG) and the echocardiography evaluate your heart's health. With the EKG, we attach adhesive-backed electrodes to your chest that run wires into the EKG machine. The electrical activity in your heart creates waveforms, which we interpret to be sure your heart is beating normally, has no defects, and that your blood vessels are clear.
An echocardiogram uses ultrasound to give us even more insight into your heart’s anatomy and function. We can also assess the health of your heart valves.
If you have abnormal test results, a personal or family history of CAD, or if you have warning signs such as chest pain or shortness of breath, we may recommend stress testing. A stress test measures how hard your heart works when at rest and compares that to how hard the heart works while under the stress of exercise or a medication that raises your heart rate.
A traditional stress test uses an EKG or an echo to measure your heart activity at rest and under stress. Or, we might use a nuclear stress test. We then inject a radioactive dye into your veins and watch how it moves through your blood vessels at rest and under stress.
If you have high cholesterol, a family or personal history of CAD, or other warning signs of atherosclerosis, we may take a deeper look inside your blood vessels. We look for evidence of plaque buildup or calcification that narrows your blood vessels and makes them inflexible.
We may use a cardiac computed tomography (CT) scan to do this. We might also use a CT angiography, in which we inject dye into your vessels before the CT. Finally, we may thread a catheter through an artery and into your heart, a procedure called a coronary catheter angiography. This allows us to see if your artery is clear or blocked.
Once you have your results, you can either continue as you have until the following year’s exam. Or, if you need to make changes, your end-of-year results help you set must-do resolutions to make lifestyle modifications, take medications, or have a necessary procedure to preserve or recover your heart health. We tailor our advice to your individual risk profile.
To schedule your heart health evaluation, call our expert team at 718-208-4816 or use our online outreach form today.
