Get care from a leader in heart valve and structural heart disorders at Ascension Texas Cardiovascular in Central Texas.
Get care from a leader in heart valve and structural heart disorders at Ascension Texas Cardiovascular in Central Texas.
Early detection can save lives. Take our free, 3-minute heart risk assessment today. It could make all the difference.
When you need advanced care for heart and valve disease, a team of experienced specialists at Ascension Texas Cardiovascular deliver advanced diagnostics and valve disease imaging, personalized therapeutic and surgical treatment and rehabilitation support.
This heart condition affects one or more of the heart's valves. If blood doesn't flow properly when the heart valves open, the reasons can be leaky valves (regurgitation), too narrow (stenosis), or not opening properly (atresia). Heart and valve conditions can lead to a heart attack or progressive heart failure.
When you need advanced, specialized care for heart valve and structural heart conditions, Ascension Texas Cardiovascular delivers advanced diagnostics and imaging, minimally invasive therapies, surgical care, and rehabilitation support. From treatment through recovery, we provide personalized, compassionate heart care that’s right for you.
Heart valve diseases we treat include:
Common symptoms of heart valve disease include:
Some people with heart valve disease experience no symptoms. If you are an older adult or have had other health conditions such as rheumatic fever, heart attack and arrhythmia, talk to your doctor about your risk for heart valve disease.
An accurate diagnosis helps your doctor personalize your care. To diagnose a structural heart valve problem, your doctor may recommend testing, such as:
This is also known as a cardiac or heart cath. 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. This procedure lets your doctor take a close look at the heart to identify concerns and to perform other tests or procedures.
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.
Treatment for heart valve disease may include medication, therapy or surgery.
For this nonsurgical procedure, a special hollow tube (catheter) is put into a blood vessel in the groin and guided into the heart. At the tip of the catheter is a deflated balloon that is inserted into the narrowed heart valve. Once in place, the balloon is inflated to stretch the valve open, and then removed. This procedure is only used to treat stenotic (narrowed) valves.
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.
Cardiac surgeons treat complex heart valve disease to repair damaged heart valves through open heart surgery and minimally invasive procedures, including TAVR and MitraClip™. When one or both of your valves do not open or close correctly, it can lead to reduced blood flow, cause the heart to work harder, and result in symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, fainting, or even heart failure.
Heart and valve problems can lead to heart attack or progressive heart failure, so it’s important to talk to your doctor about early treatment options. For some heart valve conditions, surgery may be recommended. Whenever possible, our national care team of heart specialists perform cardiac surgeries using minimally invasive techniques, which may help shorten your recovery time and lower your risk of complications. Find a heart specialist near you.
When you are facing a new diagnosis or are deciding on a surgical or therapeutic treatment plan, there’s a lot to think about. If you are looking for a second opinion for advanced heart care, your heart care team can also connect you with the right specialists for minimally invasive surgery, including TAVR, WATCHMAN™ and ablation. Our heart and vascular specialists can provide a second opinion, based on our experience and as part of a national care team.
Before your appointment, check with your insurance company to find out if a second opinion is covered. We can request your medical records on your behalf, so that they can be shared with your care team before your arrival.
If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, go directly to the ER or call 911.
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