- First step is assessing the disorder; what is the current state of the disease? which phase is it in? do we have a final diagnosis identified? is the diagnosis precise? If there is an established diagnosis, is the treatment appropriate? Was the treatment proposed the ideal one? Examples of proposed treatment are: cardiac catheterism, angioplasty, surgery, pacemaker, defibrillator, bypass, or revascularization to give a few examples.
- The next step is a thorough evaluation of the patient’s individual characteristics: past medical history, diagnosis of diabetes, hypertension, previous heart attacks, heart murmurs, normal heart sounds, presence of arrhythmias, response to previous medications used, current labs, ekg, chest x-ray.
- Lastly an in depth analysis of all additional studies done, such as; echocardiogram, thalium stress-echo, gammagraphy, angiotomography, 24hr ekg, dobutamine stress-echo among others.
Grupo Cardiovascular de Tijuana
Once a cardiac catheterism is needed, the interpretation of this procedures provides crucial information like the anatomy of the heart, injuries to the coronary arteries, level of obstruction, length of the lesion, involvement of one or more vessels, is the injury located on more than one artery, is the lesion calcified, is the injury located at the arterial origin, midline, or endpoint of the vessel, is there a blood clot present, what the function of the heart “ejection fraction” (should be 70% at least), what are the pressures of the chambers, how healthy are the valves of the heart; aortic and mitral.
It is very important to determine risk scores; these scores are calculated according to the severity of the coronary disease. This score is an additional assessment that allows us to determine objectively the need for revascularization surgery “bypass” (score >33) or angioplasty with stent implant (score <33). This diagnostic procedure gets performed by an experienced interventional cardiologist and usually done along other medical specialists. The euro score is another assessment used to determine the risk percentage during bypass surgery.
Depending of associated diseases, it is important to always remain in collaboration with other specialists, such as; internist, cardiologists, nephrologists, pulmonologist, etc… it is also important to have the collaboration of the patient and their families, this will support the patients journey and will promote adherence to treatment and the proper follow through of international medical guidelines established for this type of specialty.
It is common practice among our medical group to discuss cases, we hold round tables with my doctors like; cardiologist, interventional cardiologist, cardiovascular surgeon. All these processes guarantee the safest medical approach and the best prognosis to allow the patient to return to a productive social and professional life along with their families and loved ones.
Please call us for an appointment if you are seeking a second medical opinion, you can reach us via whatsapp, Messenger, or calling our office at 664-634-3139. We will wholeheartedly attend to all your medical needs.
