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6957 W. Plano Parkway |
HeartFirst Newsletter Issue 5 - September 2010
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| Cholesterol and Heart Diseaseby Cheryl Reinhart
Understanding Cholesterol Cholesterol is a soft, waxy, “fat’ that is needed by the body for functions such as building cell membranes and making hormones. The problem is if there is too much cholesterol it can build up in the walls of our arteries causing a hard substance called plaque that can block our arteries and cause a heart attack or a stroke. The LDL is called “bad” cholesterol because it causes build-up on the artery walls. The HDL is called “good” cholesterol because it carries the cholesterol (LDL) away from the artery walls and out of the body. Triglycerides (Tg), a special fat, are also associated with heart disease. They travel in the blood to be used for energy or stored as fat. High Tg levels are associated with obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance and low levels of the good cholesterol- HDL. What causes high cholesterol? What will happen if my levels are high? What should my numbers be?
To see if you are at intermediate risk or high risk for a heart attack or stroke, click here. Read more about cholesterol and heart disease. Cardiac PET Stress TestingBy Dr. James Rellas "Doctor, I had a nuclear stress test months ago, traveled on business, and 3 months later suffered a hear There are many misperceptions regarding stress testing and what the results guarantee. Tests in general can either be good at picking up abnormal patients or correctly identifying normal patients. You can’t have it both ways, until now! Stress echocardiogram and nuclear stress testing have been the norm for years. These tests are used to identify patients with significant blockages that need immediate attention. Hopefully, at the same time we don’t misidentify healthy patients and send them off for unnecessary and potentially dangerous additional testing. For those of you who remember statistics, the sensitivity of these tests vary in studies between 80% and 90%. Specificity is worse at 75-88%. The “GOLD STANDARD” to assess how well stress echocardiograms and nuclear testing is doing has been Cardiac PET testing. Used primarily as a research tool this “GOLD STANDARD” has been unavailable to patient care until recently. Previously, one needed a cyclotron to obtain the nuclear isotope, rubidium-82, for PET imaging. We now have the ability to bring the rubidium-82 to the office of a nuclear cardiologist using a generator that produces rubidium-82 (from decaying strontium) for one month. In addition, equipment is more reasonably priced allowing nuclear cardiologists to offer the “GOLD STANDARD” in their office. Read more about cardiac PET stress testing. Cartoon from Medical Economics Magazine, August 6, 2010. |
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Congratulations to Dr. Rellas for receiving his Board Certification in Clinical Lipidology! The American Board of Clinical Lipidology (ABCL) certification program establishes a consistent benchmark of expertise in the field of clinical lipidology.
Elizabeth is our Hero for the month for May. She is a Medical Assistant (MA) and has been with HeartFirst for 2 years and in the medical field for 4 years. 
Adrianna is our Hero of the Month for June. She is a Lead Medical Assistant (MA) and she has been with HeartFirst for 7 years. She is the very proud mother of 2 boys who love to play baseball. 
Scotty is our Hero of the Month for July. He is a Nuclear Technologist and has been working in Nuclear Medicine since 1973. Scotty recently celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary with his wife Terry 
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and high cholesterol levels play a major role in this process. Even though we need cholesterol, too much of it is a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. Understanding our cholesterol levels can be complex and confusing. When we ask patients what their cholesterol levels are they usually give us the total cholesterol. The total cholesterol is only part of the story. It includes the:
t attack! How can that happen?"