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Lacamas Life Magazine
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50 Years of Cardiovascular Strides
Over the last 50 years, the care of people with cardiovascular problems has seen tremendous strides unmatched, with few exceptions, in medicine and surgery. With these advances have come a reduction in death rates and an overall improvement in the lives of these patients. The next millennium promises to bring forth even more astounding discoveries in both the diagnosis and the treatment of heart and vascular diseases.
For example, the treatment of a myocardial infarction (heart attack) in Clark County is currently amongst the most advanced, both in terms of rapid recognition by the paramedics but subsequently in the most up-to-date treatments including opening the artery to restore life by specially trained interventional cardiologist such as Drs. Ontkean and Subocz. These practices are currently being adopted by surrounding communities including Portland, Oregon, to get emergency personnel to rapidly triage patients to hospitals able to deliver these life-saving procedures such as emergency angioplasty.
The treatment of congestive heart failure has been advanced under the director of our Regional Heart Failure (CHF) program, Dr. Harper. With a clinic specific for CHF patients, the latest in care can be initiated with many of the advanced modalities for treatment. These include intravenous drug infusions and EEDP. EECP is a recent treatment for severe CHF that utilizes rapid inflation and deflation of a special device that allows a failing heart to pump more efficiently.
The ability to accurately diagnose heart and vascular problems has seen the most significant improvement in recent years. Initially, the use of ultrasound exams of the heart and nuclear perfusion scans of the working heart muscle allowed cardiologists to detect at earlier stages treatable cardiac problems. On such example has been the use of combining exercise treadmill testing with nuclear myocardial perfusion scans in our office to allow much more accurate detection of vessel blockages particularly in high risk patient groups such as diabetic or hypertensive patients with abnormal electrocardiograms.
Dr. David Boston has recently returned from London, UK, after months of training in Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) at one of the world’s leading centers. According to Dr. Boston, this upcoming state of the art imaging will soon be available to patients here in Clark County. This new technology will allow the imaging of the heart and vessels without dyes or radiation thus opening the door to help diagnose and treat many patients.
The diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias) has been greatly improved in this region with the addition of Dr. James Reiss who comes to us from Oregon Health Sciences University. His expertise includes pacemakers along with the newer defibrillator pacemakers. Additionally, he brings his experience of the technique of treating many common arrhythmias with a procedure called Catheter Ablation Therapy which uses tiny catheters threaded into the heart to treat these heart rhythm problems.
With the new opening of Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital, we will now be able to offer services at our new office adjacent to the facility along with our existing main office next to Southwest Washington Medical Center.
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