Structural Heart

Your Heart's Roadmap

Your heart has four valves with tissue flaps that open and close with every heartbeat. These flaps act as a roadmap for the heart, guiding blood flow in the right direction through the four chambers of your heart and throughout your body. If a problem occurs with one of your heart valves, our team at the DMC is here to help you.

Although some people have heart valve defects they are born with or disease that has developed over time, they may not have symptoms or even any problems. In other cases, the heart valve problem may worsen and cause symptoms to develop. When left untreated, advanced heart valve disease can cause heart failure, stroke, blood clots, or even death.

Navigating Your Care

The Structural Heart/Valve Clinic at the DMC is designed to make your visit more efficient, saving you time away from work or home by making sure you can be seen by our entire team in just one day.

The Structural Heart Program at the DMC encompasses interventional technology as well as the latest in structural heart innovations. The variety of minimally-invasive treatment options gives patients a wide range of personalized choices with the ability to make an educated decision based on their specific diagnosis.

A patient navigator will make all the necessary appointments and schedule you with one of our cardiologists and a cardiovascular surgeon, who are skilled in some of the most innovative valve procedures, and work together to develop your personalized care plan.

What You Can Expect

A visit to the Valve Clinic might include reviewing any previous tests or imaging of your heart, or some new testing may be performed. There are various options for treating valve disease, and our team will discuss those with you. Surgery to fix or replace a faulty valve may be needed. If that is the case, we offer minimally invasive techniques to lessen pain and blood loss, and allow you to get back to your daily routine faster, with a healthier heart.

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Angioplasty

The goal of an angioplasty is to unblock the artery and get blood flowing to the heart again. Other names that you may hear for an angioplasty are Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) and Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA).

When Do You Need an Angioplasty?

In many cases, a heart attack happens because the arteries that deliver blood to the heart become narrowed or blocked. Perhaps a substance like a blood clot, fat or calcium has built up over time, and eventually the blockage becomes so severe the necessary amount of blood cannot reach the heart. The heart struggles to get oxygen the blood is supposed to deliver.

When that happens, immediate medical care is essential. Getting to an emergency room is the No. 1 priority. Emergency physicians can quickly diagnose a heart attack, and call in a heart care specialist. If the cause is a blockage like the one described above, the heart care specialist may perform an emergency angioplasty. The goal is to perform an angioplasty as soon as possible; minutes are precious in this situation.

Emergency or Elective?

For some patients, angioplasty may be an elective procedure. Their physician may refer them to a heart care specialist, who determines a blockage is forming and requires treatment before it triggers a heart attack. Elective angioplasty is scheduled, usually as an outpatient procedure.

How Angioplasty Works

Angioplasty is performed using a slim, flexible catheter inserted into a blood vessel, usually in the wrist or groin. The catheter is carefully guided toward the source of the blockage, where a variety of procedures can be performed to open the artery and restore blood flow. The average angioplasty procedure takes just 30 to 90 minutes to perform. Techniques include:

Balloon Only - The catheter is carefully placed in the blockage, and a tiny balloon is expanded. As the balloon expands, it presses the blockage back against the artery wall, so that the artery is opened again. The balloon is then deflated and removed, using the same catheter.
Balloon with Stent - The catheter may also deliver a balloon with a stent, which is a tiny, expandable, mesh tube. The balloon is inflated inside the stent and as it inflates, it expands the tube outward against the walls of the artery. The stent then acts as a support to keep the artery open.
Drug-Eluting Stent - A stent may include the risk of creating additional scar tissue, which could lead to a future blockage. Some stents are coated with drugs that prevent that scar tissue from growing in the artery.