Heart and valve care in Waco

This imaging procedure uses an X-ray machine and a computer to create 3-D pictures of the heart. Sometimes a dye is injected into a vein so that your heart arteries can also be seen. Sometimes medicine is given to lower your heart rate so it captures a better image. It can also be used to find out how much calcium is in your heart arteries. Calcium is a marker for coronary artery disease.

This procedure uses a combination of large magnets, radio waves, and a computer to make detailed images of organs and structures in your body. Your doctor may order an MRI of the heart to look at the heart valves and major vessels. It can also detect coronary artery disease and how much damage it has caused. It can also assess heart problems that have been present since birth. It can find tumors and other conditions. Your doctor may order this test before other procedures such as angioplasty or stenting of the coronary arteries and heart or vascular surgery.

This test is done during a cardiac catheterization. For this test, your doctor guides a small catheter (hollow tube) through the large artery in your upper leg, or sometimes your wrist or arm, into your heart. Dye is given through the catheter, and moving X-ray pictures are taken as the dye travels through your heart arteries and heart chambers. This comprehensive test shows narrowing in the arteries, heart chamber size, how well your heart pumps, and how well the valves open and close. It also measures the pressures within the heart chambers, arteries, and veins.

It's used to check the heart's function and structures. During the procedure, a transducer (like a microphone) sends out sound waves at a frequency too high to be heard. When the transducer is placed on the chest at certain locations and angles, the sound waves move through the skin and other body tissues to the heart tissues. The waves bounce or "echo" off the heart structures. These sound waves are sent to a computer that can create moving images on the screen of the heart walls and valves.

This test records the electrical activity of the heart, shows abnormal rhythms (arrhythmias), and can sometimes detect heart muscle damage.

A device may be used to close off the left atrial appendage in some cases. This can prevent stroke without having to use lifelong blood thinners. The left atrial appendage is the area within the heart where most blood clots form. By closing this area off, any clots that form there cannot get out to travel to the brain to cause a stroke. The device is implanted without heart surgery. This device is not right for everyone. It is generally considered in those who are at high risk for stroke, as well as high risk for bleeding. Even with the device, you may need to take blood thinners in the short-term.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a procedure that replaces a diseased aortic valve with a man-made valve. The TAVR procedure may be recommended as an alternative to open heart surgery. The old heart valve is not removed but acts like an anchor for the new heart valve. This procedure is done through small cuts (incisions) using a long, thin tube (catheter), X-rays, and ultrasound.