Cardiology

Medical City Healthcare provides advanced care for diagnosing, managing and treating patients with irregular heartbeats. Any changes in the heart’s electrical impulses, causing it to beat too slowly or too fast, is considered heart arrhythmia.

Working with doctors, staff at our electrophysiology labs monitor patients’ heart activity and provide services and treatments for many conditions, including atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, bradycardia arrhythimas, heart blocks and tachycardia arrhythimas.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. While symptoms vary widely for men and women, most heart attack sufferers had no previous symptoms. That's why it is crucial to know your personal risk factors and take the necessary steps to reduce them.

Although there are congenital (present at birth) forms of heart disease that are passed along from one generation to the next, the more common forms of heart disease are directly related to lifestyle.

Heart disease symptoms can build up over time and often go unnoticed until the disease is firmly established. However, you can reduce your risk of heart disease by exercising regularly, eating healthy foods and keeping track of these vital numbers:

• Body mass index (BMI): A high BMI usually points to excess body weight, which causes your heart to pump harder to circulate your blood. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 indicates you may be overweight. A BMI of 30 or more indicates obesity.
• Total cholesterol and high density lipoproteins (HDL): A greater total cholesterol level is less than 200. If your total level is 240 or more, you are at an increased risk for heart disease. You may also want to monitor your HDL level, which is recommend to be 50 or more. If it is less than 40, you are at a higher risk for heart disease.
• Blood sugar: Too much unconverted sugar in the blood system makes the heart pump harder, adding stress to the muscle. You may have diabetes if your blood sugar is above 126.
• Blood pressure: High blood pressure indicates the heart is working harder than it should to circulate your blood. In 2018, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology redefined blood pressure guidelines and deleted the prehypertension category. These new guidelines mean nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure. A blood pressure reading of less than 120 and less than 80 is considered "normal." A reading between 120 to 129 and less than 80 is considered elevated. Readings consistently greater than 130 or 80 are indicative of hypertension.