The Mount Sinai Hospital is one of three institutions in New York State, and one of one hundred in the nation, selected to study the safety and effectiveness of an implantable cranial nerve stimulation device for heart failure patients with debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, and heart arrhythmias.
Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP) is a common heart valve abnormality that affects up to 5 percent of the U.S. population. The mitral valve controls the flow of blood from the lungs to the main pumping chamber of the heart. MVP results from a degeneration of valve structure that leads to a regurgitation of blood backwards that can result in heart enlargement and weakening, as well as fatigue and shortness of breath.
You’ve faithfully trained five days a week for two years to successfully complete the New York City Marathon. You feel great and can run 20 miles with relative ease. Then your date asks you to join her at yoga class, during which you find you can’t come close to touching your toes. The next day your calf muscles are painful and you can’t run.
Or, perhaps you love going to the gym to lift free-weights and use the machines. You look and feel great; your muscles are well developed and cut. But when you decide to join in on your niece’s basketball game, you find yourself too out of breath to keep up, and after 10 minutes of play you drag yourself panting to the sidelines to rest. The next day you are too tired to go the gym. (more…)
Recent media reports have caused some alarm and confusion about newly published guidelines for statin drugs. Statin drugs reduce cholesterol levels and also decrease cardiac and vascular disease, independent of their cholesterol-lowering effect. Statins provide multiple benefits, but the mechanisms of their actions are not yet fully understood. Like any medication, there is a risk of side effects, which can occur in up to 18 percent of patients and most often consist of muscle pain or temporary derangement of liver function. Rare serious side effects have been described. (more…)
A recent article in the financial press (Bloomberg) drew wide attention to inappropriate and excessive use of stents in patients with coronary artery disease (disease in the vessels that supply blood to the heart). Stents are tiny mesh tubes placed in a diseased coronary artery to “prop” it open after a narrowed segment of it has been expanded by a balloon. (more…)
One common complaint I hear from patients in my practice is the sensation that their heart skips a beat, or that every once in a while they experience an unusually strong heartbeat. This can be felt in the chest or even in the neck. (more…)