Cardiologist Dr. Omar Almousalli and his team of cardiologists, physicians and surgeons at Frontenac Cardiovascular Center are dedicated to more than just treating those with existing heart disease. They also focus on preventative care and providing the tools, knowledge and medical assistance necessary to live a heart-healthy life.
Frontenac Cardiovascular Center offers state-of-the-art technologies and a knowledgeable staff experienced in treating and evaluating heart disease. The center now offers cardiac imaging, which provides those with a risk of heart disease the opportunity to detect it long before deadly symptoms begin. The process starts with a simple and affordable calcium scoring test, which is a high-resolution scan of the heart to show any calcium buildup in the arteries. It requires no IV or medication, and results are delivered within 15 minutes.
A notable benefit is that those who are concerned about their risk can walk in without a referral or doctor’s order and get the test for $99. If no calcium buildup appears, the patient’s heart is healthy and they can wait 10 years before getting tested again. If the test shows some calcium buildup, the second step is a coronary CTA, a similar high resolution test with IV contrast to show the level of buildup in the heart’s vessels.
“The idea is to detect heart disease 10 years before symptoms start,” Almousalli says. “If we see calcium buildup, we can go further and find out how much and where the blockage is and take care of it before it becomes serious. If we catch things early enough, there is nothing that cannot be treated.” The ideal candidates for testing are men over 35 and women over 40 who have one or more of the following heart disease risk factors: history of smoking, family history of heart disease, diabetes, obesity or hypertension. “We’ve always known that we need to do something to prevent heart disease,” Almousalli notes. “The technology has improved so much that the test has become very simple, very sensitive and extremely useful.”
Unfortunately, insurance companies generally will not cover tests without a patient exhibiting symptoms and a basic stress test in a doctor’s office may not show an underlying problem that is presymptomatic. The center’s calcium scoring test removes obstacles to provide a quick, easy and affordable way to get peace of mind. “My vision was to offer health care in different ways,” Almousalli says. “This is a test to directly answer the question, Do I have heart disease, and do I need to worry about it? If the initial test shows a blockage, then insurance will pick it up from there since there is visible evidence of a problem.” The goal of this type of preventative testing is to screen as many people as possible to ultimately help eliminate heart disease and decrease the number of people coming into the emergency room with a heart attack.
“Just because a person thinks they are OK and feels OK doesn’t always mean they are OK,” Almousalli says. “We should be able to know about a problem and take care of it long before it becomes life-threatening.”
10431 clayton road | 314.733.9090 | frontenaccardiovascularcenter.com
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