Health Upp Heart Institute – For millennia the heart has been associated with love and human emotion. It has been the subject of countless writings, myths, fairytales, songs and much more. Many a happy ending has been written, and, on sadder notes, it is often broken. Of course, in reality it is not the heart that governs love and emotion, but it be broken!
Basically, the heart is a dual pump which, quite literally, moves the life blood around the body. One half of this dual pumping organ draws blood from the body and keeps a steady flow to the lungs. The other half of this dual pump functions in the completely opposite way, taking the blood from the lungs and pumping it back around the body.
A cursory glance through Gray’s Anatomy gives us some key statistics about the human heart. The heart of an adult human has a length, width and thickness of 12cm, 8.5cm and 6cm respectively. However, the mass of the heart varies across genders, in an adult female its mass is between 230 and 280 grams, and in a male, 250 and 350 grams.
A healthy human heart is an incredibly robust organ capable of varying its working output as required almost tirelessly over many years. As we age the heart may become weaker as we are less active, this can cause the left ventricle to stiffen. This, in turn, means a reduction in the flow of oxygenated blood being supplied to the body. Older people also tend to have a lower rest rate than that of younger people.
But it is not only age that can cause the heart to falter. Sickness, disease and trauma can also negatively affect the heart’s ability to function as it should. There are many conditions affecting the heart which require medical attention, and, being of central importance to the bodies circulatory system, only highly skilled expert physicians should be sort.
Samitivej Hospital’s Active Performance Medical Center
Thailand’s Samitivej Hospitals are renown throughout Asia and also respected across the world for their exemplary medical expertise. This hospital group has created a unique facility, the Samitivej Hospital’s Active Performance Medical Center, or, SAPMC. The facility is state of the art and is staffed by some of leaders in the field of cardiology.
The center’s team of cardiologists have vast international experience. This specialist area of medicine requires very specialist knowledge. Samitivej’s respected team have studied cardiology in numerous countries, including the UK, America, Canada and Australia. Their vast knowledge and experience now benefit the patients at the SAPMC.
Diagnostics at SAPMC
Successful treatment requires expert diagnostics, and there is none better than that to be found at SAPMC. Methods of assessing the condition of the heart and diagnosing suspect cardiac conditions are many and varied. At SAPMC the exact diagnostics are structured to each individual case with the diagnostic procedure, or procedures, being tailored to every patient.
Often, simple and well tried and tested diagnostic methods are used. This could be Holter monitoring. The Holter monitor is a portable device worn by the patient for up to 72 hours. The device records, and also detects, heart rhythm abnormalities that cannot been seen using a conventional electrocardiograph. The Holter monitor is an entirely non-invasive method of supplying cardiologists with very accurate data.
Cardio stress testing is a very useful tool in diagnostics. This involves increasing the patients heart rate, either through exercise or via the intervention of medication. The way in which the heart responds to the stimulus is monitored and recorded. The collected data is invaluable in ascertaining the appropriate treatment for the patient.
Of course, as you would expect from such an advanced medical facility, more advanced technology is available to the team of cardio physicians. Echocardiograms, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cardiac computerized tomography (CT) scans are regularly utilized in cardio diagnostics.
There are occasions when a more invasive procedure is necessary, that of cardiac catheterization. This procedure involves the insertion of a tube into a vein in the leg or arm. Inserted into this tube is a guide catheter. The skilled physician then, using images projected through a monitor, can thread the catheter through the artery to the heart.
A special dye can be injected which is visible via x-ray, this allows the doctor to monitor the efficiency of the blood flow as it passes through the heart and valves. Cardiac catheterization also allows the pressure in each of the heart’s chambers to be accurately assessed.
Scanners of various type play a vital role in cardio diagnostics. At SAPMC they are exploiting the most up-to-date technology, this is demonstrated with their ultra-modern 640-slice CT Scanner. This remarkable piece of modern technology is safer and faster than any scanner that has gone before.
The 640-slice CT Scanner gives the doctors the ability to create an entire image of the heart in the blink of an eye, a fraction of a second. Their new hi-tech scanning system has an 80% reduction in the levels of radiation, this means that they can utilize the 640-slice CT Scanner for pediatric use. Scanners are often stressful to many patients due to their narrow bore, but, with the new 640-slice CT Scanner having a much wider bore, the intimidating feeling of the narrow bore is eliminated, thus the reliving stress. Being a less stressful procedure is also of great relief to young patients.
Heart Institute: Cardiac Treatment at SAPMC
Following detailed and expert diagnostics at SAPMC the expert team are able to treat all cardiac conditions, be they common and straight forward, or rare muti-faceted issues. Heart attacks and cardiac arrests are often treated by the team at SAPMC. In many instances, after detailed assessment a patient’s condition can be treated with a medication and lifestyle plan.
Treatment for artery and heart valve diseases are not uncommon, as is treatment for pericardial, aortic, carotid and congenital diseases. Other treatment can include that for pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that has traveled to the heart, often due to the patient having deep vein thrombosis.
Cardio arrhythmia in adults is becoming more common, of which there are 4 types: Asystole, ventricle tachycardia (VT), polymorphic ventricle tachycardia and ventricle fibrillation (VF), which is the most common. These are regularly treated with unprecedented, and much envied, levels of success SAPMC.
The true measure of Samitivej Hospital’s Active Performance Medical Center success can be seen in the ever-increasing numbers of patients that chose to entrust their Heart Institute issues with the highly skilled practitioners delivering the ultimate in medical care at SAPMC. With ever more international patients trusting the name Samitivej, perhaps its success speaks for itself.