Detecting Heart Problems

Baptist Health La Grange: Detecting Heart Problems

Cardiologist Jesse Adams, MD discusses the prevention and treatment of heart disease. Stress tests and other diagnostic procedures help identify narrowing or blockage in the arteries.

Detecting Heart Problems Health Talks Transcript

Jesse Adams, MD
The heart is critical for our overall health. If the question comes up about somebody possibly having heart disease, that frequently goes to the top of the list of concerns. The cardiac testing we have here at Baptist La Grange integrates nicely with the cardiac testing that we have available at the other Baptist Health organizations.

Here in La Grange, we have standardized tests that really provide the bedrock for detecting if someone has any cardiac issues. One common test that we use in cardiology is a stress test. A stress test basically provides the physician with information about how the heart responds to increased demand. One way that we do this is with a stress test on a treadmill. As we ask for more demand and the heart starts to work harder, it calls for more blood and if someone has some narrowing or blockage in one of the three arteries of the heart, then we can start to see problems that develop with them. So a stress test is designed to pick up if there is any narrowing or blockage that could potentially cause problems in the future.

There’s a lot that we can do these days, both as a combination of what the individual can do as well as what we as cardiac professionals can do to help prevent it in the future, help take care of it.