Healthy blood pressure for women and men is generally a systolic number under 120 and a diastolic number under 80. High blood pressure (also called HBP or hypertension) is when the force of blood flowing through your body is consistently too high. Your heart has to work harder to do its job. This can damage…
A minimally invasive mitral regurgitation treatment to repair the mitral valve is now available, giving a new option to patients who may not be able to tolerate conventional open heart surgery to fix the valve. Mitral valve regurgitation sometimes doesn’t need any treatment or can be treated with medication. In moderate to severe cases the…
You wouldn’t look at Robert Taylor and think he survived a stroke. The 56-year-old is a poster child for good health. He ran the Boston Marathon, completed three Ironman competitions — including the national championship — in one year, and has participated in countless triathlons. Even a random 100-mile bike ride on a Saturday morning…
Cardiologists have another tool to help determine how to help patients with symptoms of coronary artery disease, by modeling the blood flow through their arteries to predict how cholesterol buildup might affect them. The added information can help determine whether patients would respond best to treatments that can include medication, minimally invasive placement of a…
UK HealthCare (UKHC) and Norton Heart & Vascular Institute are announcing a collaboration to expand advanced heart failure, ventricular assist device (VAD) placement and heart transplant services to Kentuckians. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Kentucky, and the commonwealth has one of the highest rates of heart disease in the country. Norton…
Carotid artery blockage treatment, typically medication at first and eventually surgery in more severe cases, can reduce the risk of stroke or worse. Plaque buildup in arteries that supply blood to the brain could cause serious damage if pieces break off and reach the brain. Carotid artery blockages cause up to a third of strokes,…
The only reliable sign of high blood pressure is the data gathered by a blood pressure cuff. There are rarely outward symptoms of high blood pressure, unless you are severely ill and in need of emergency treatment. That is why it is called a “silent killer.” Occasional headaches, nosebleeds, blood spots in the whites of…
Norton Heart & Vascular Institute has expanded services for patients with advanced heart failure to include surgical implantation of ventricular assist devices (VADs) at Norton Audubon Hospital, which recently received VAD accreditation from DNV GL – Healthcare and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In early 2020, Norton Audubon Hospital was the winner of…
Not long after joining Norton Heart & Vascular Institute, interventional cardiologist Daniel Rothschild, M.D., was working on a challenging case to install a stent in a patient’s artery. The patient had a dangerous calcium buildup in one of the arteries supplying his heart. Dr. Rothschild and another interventional cardiologist would use a tiny drill called…
A collaboration between Norton Healthcare, the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University aims to evaluate student-athletes for heart damage after having the COVID-19 virus. Norton Healthcare is uniquely positioned to facilitate this partnership: Norton Sports Health is the official health care provider of the Louisville Cardinals and the official sports health provider for Bellarmine University…
Bassel Alkhalil, M.D., was a medical resident and unsure what path to take in medicine when a dramatic case changed his life. While he was training at a Baltimore hospital, an 18-year-old with heart failure and listed for a heart transplant needed to get to the hospital immediately because a donor heart had become available….
Atrial fibrillation (A-fib) is a heart rhythm condition that isn’t life-threatening, but can lead to other conditions such as stroke and heart failure, so it should be taken very seriously. A-fib is an irregular heart rhythm starting from the atria — the top of the heart — sending out fast, erratic signals that cause the…