I {Heart} Cardiology
Simple steps and advanced procedures can stop heart disease before or after it starts.
Life’s Essential 8
The American Heart Association has developed eight key measures for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health.
1. Eat well. Whole foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, nuts, seeds and cooking in non-tropical oils such as olive and canola.
2. Be more active. Adults should get 2½ hours of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week. Children should have 60 minutes every day, including play and structured activities.
3. Quit tobacco. Use of inhaled nicotine delivery products, particularly cigarettes, is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
4. Get enough sleep. Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep each night; children need more. Adequate sleep promotes healing, improves brain function and reduces the risk for chronic diseases.
5. Manage weight. Your doctor or health care provider can help you figure out if your weight is healthy for your age and body. A healthy weight helps your brain and heart function better.
6. Control cholesterol. High levels of non-HDL, or “bad,” cholesterol can lead to heart disease.
7. Manage blood sugar. Over time, high levels of blood sugar can damage your heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves.
8. Manage blood pressure. High blood pressure can harm heart and brain health and usually has no symptoms. It can lead to serious health problems, including heart attack, stroke, dementia, heart failure, kidney disease/failure and vision loss.
A visit to the cardiology department sounds daunting, but when you’re in coronary distress, there’s nowhere you’d rather be than Torrance Memorial’s Lundquist Lurie Cardiovascular Institute (LLCVI). Even before developing a coronary condition, the LLCVI can help keep your heart healthy and head off heart disease.
A comprehensive heart institute, the LLCVI offers the full range of specialized cardiac services, much more than a standard community hospital. LLCVI physicians, nurses and technicians have the skills and equipment to treat even the most serious heart conditions. Just as important, they have the tools to stop heart disease before it starts.
“The majority of coronary disease is preventable,” says interventional cardiologist Ankush Chhabra, MD, the institute’s medical director.
With a healthy lifestyle and early detection, diagnosis and treatment of coronary disease, 80% of premature heart attacks and strokes are preventable. Dr. Chhabra notes that the LLCVI’s cardiologists now spend more time talking with patients about prevention than about procedures. “Prevention is the most exciting and impactful part of cardiology right now.”
Chances are, you already know how to minimize your risks of suffering from a heart attack or stroke (see sidebar). But what if you find yourself with a racing heart and shortness of breath? Gripped with chest pain? Or trying to beat cancer? The LLCVI is definitely where you want to be.
If your heart skips a beat, it may be innocuous—or serious. Any abnormal heart rhythm is a form of arrhythmia, and the LLCVI can diagnose and treat the full range of arrhythmias, from benign to life-threatening.
Atrial fibrillation (A-fib), one of the most common, can lead to an increased risk of blood clot formation and stroke or heart failure. “A-fib affects about 5% of the population in the United States, and the biggest risk factor is age,” says cardiac electrophysiologist Matthew Ostrom, MD.
Dr. Ostrom specializes in ablation, a minimally invasive procedure that creates small scars to block the electrical signals responsible for A-fib and other arrhythmias. This can be accomplished through heat, cold or, more recently, pulsed field ablation—a technique using electrical pulses to precisely affect the targeted tissue.
“It’s safer and faster,” Dr. Ostrom says. “With pulsed field ablation, we don’t worry as much about damaging nearby tissue. The procedure is quicker, and patients experience a faster recovery. We don’t know exactly what causes most arrhythmias, but we do know there are multiple risk factors, including obesity, hypertension, diabetes and sleep apnea. A lot of these conditions could be better prevented through education and lifestyle changes.”
The same risk factors apply to heart attacks, notes interventional cardiologist Salman Azam, MD, adding that LLCVI cardiologists now focus on working with patients to prevent heart attacks, as well as helping patients recover.
“One of the most important developments in the prevention of heart attacks is Torrance Memorial’s screening program,” he explains. “I use it to focus on preventive measures, starting with lifestyle choices.”
For patients who’ve already had a heart attack, the first step is to create a picture of their heart and arteries.
“The Lundquist Lurie Cardiovascular Institute brings cardiology specialists together to review the patient’s anatomy and tailor treatment to the individual from a multispecialty perspective,” says Dr. Azam. “The ability to do that is one of the benefits of a comprehensive heart institute. We have the specialists and technology to treat the most complex coronary disease with a variety of tools, from lifestyle modifications and medication to surgery. It’s all based on what the patient needs.”
Torrance Memorial uses a multispecialty approach throughout its medical departments. One example is cardio-oncology, a field combining heart and cancer care that has developed over the past decade.
Brenton Bauer, MD, director of the LLCVI’s echocardiography lab, heart failure program and cardio-oncology program, notes that people with cancer face a higher risk of heart disease. Some patients share risk factors for both illnesses, while cancer treatments themselves can lead to blood clots, arrhythmias or other heart-related conditions.
Cardio-oncology encourages collaboration between cardiologists and oncologists ensuring patients receive the best care for cancer. “Treatment plans are individualized for each patient, taking into account their specific cancer and therapy,” Dr. Bauer notes. “We closely monitor patients and implement proactive strategies to reduce the risk of cardiac complications.”
The partnership between oncologist, cardiologist and patient may begin even before treatment, with prehabilitation. “We all work together to get the patient in the best shape condition possible, through cardio-pulmonary conditioning, dietary changes and other measures.”
Torrance Memorial’s physicians aren’t the only ones using a multispecialty approach. The LLCVI’s nursing staff uses a multiple-system approach to provide the best, most comprehensive care to patients as well. Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, Torrance Memorial Medical Center is recognized for providing the best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice.
That’s especially important in cardiology, says Peggy Crabtree, RN, the LLCVI’s director. “Cardiac nursing requires a level of expertise to understand how the heart is impacted by other systems and conditions. It’s work that requires a commitment to learning and excellence, and Torrance Memorial is really good at supporting that. Everyone on the cardiology nursing team is certified in their specialty.”
For everyone who finds themselves in the LLCVI, nurses are the first people they’ll see and the people they’ll see most often. “Cardiology is a multidisciplinary team, and our physicians really respect everyone on that team.”
Looking ahead, Dr. Chhabra is enthusiastic about plans to add a wellness center to the institute. “The main effort will be nutritional counseling and exercise physiology and we’ll go from there,” he says. “The center will also emphasize community engagement. We want to encourage healthy lifestyle habits. Now that we know how much lifestyle affects coronary health and are really focusing on that, we want people to come in to the LLCVI before they need to see us—so they don’t need to see us later.”
Torrance Memorial’s partner cardiology practice, COR Healthcare Medical Associates, is located at 2841 Lomita Blvd., Suite 100, in Torrance. Call 310-257-0508 to find a heart specialist.
