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Advanced Cardiac Imaging Pittsfield, Massachusetts (MA) - Berkshire Health Systems
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Health Take-Away

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  • Healthy Holidays
  • Save a Life, Lift Your Soul, Give Blood
  • Team Approach for Breast Cancer
  • Surviving Breast Cancer: A Journey
  • Hunger in the Berkshires
  • Vaccinations Help Avoid Needless Risks
  • Embrace Mindfulness
  • Low Carb High Fat Diet has Benefits
  • Probiotics Uses the Good Bugs to Fight the Bad Ones
  • Use the Power of Nature for Better Health
  • Unplug from Online for Better Health
  • Weight Loss Through Narrowing Your Eating Window
  • Mammography and Dense Breast Tissue
  • Medication-Assisted Treatment for Addiction Disorder
  • Smoker or Former Smoker? Lung Cancer Screening is Recommended for You
  • Be Safe When Using Over the Counter Medications
  • Screenings for Colon Cancer
  • Thyroid Health Essential to Metabolism
  • Go for Nutrition that is Heart Healthy
  • High Blood Pressure and Ways to Lower It
  • Hospitalists: Your Around the Clock Caregiver
  • Weight Loss Surgery Has Lasting Impact
  • Can you Find Joy in the Holidays When Sick?
  • Coping with Holiday Depression
  • When Quitting Smoking You May Need to Try and Try Again
  • Vaginal Birth after C-Section
  • New Tool to Assess Breast Cancer Risk
  • Migraines: How to Treat Them
  • Vestibular Care: It's All in Your Ears
  • Prepare for a Healthy Trip Abroad
  • New Moms Encouraged to Breast Feed
  • Language Diversity Important to Healthcare
  • Latest Advances in Joint Replacement
  • Vaping and Nicotine Addiction
  • Urgent Care or Emergency Department
  • Free Medicare Wellness Visit
  • Rehabilitation from Stroke Onset
  • Life Threatening Stroke Can be Prevented
  • Mammography and MRI for Women with High Risk of Breast Cancer
  • Breaking the Silence on Kidney Disease
  • Stop Mindless Eating
  • Hospitals Working to Improve Heart Health
  • Your Healthy Gut Bacteria
  • Give Up Smoking in 2018
  • Healthy Resolutions for 2018
  • Healthy Giving for 2017
  • Concussions: Myths and Truths
  • Celebrate a Thankful & Healthy Holiday
  • Don't Die of Embarrassment: Get Screened for Colon Cancer
  • Don't Let the Flu Get You This Season
  • Advanced Cardiac Imaging
  • Chronic Wound Care
  • What is a Hospitalist?
  • Healthy Heart Rhythms
  • Wellness Coaching
  • Men's Health In Crisis
  • Prevent Stroke or Respond FAST
  • Walking to Good Health
  • Healing Through Acupuncture
  • Self Care is Our Future
  • Family Wellness - Play Together Stay Healthy Together
  • Rewriting Your Book of Life
  • Pre-Diabetes: A Wake-Up Call for Better Health
  • Overcoming Crisis With Resiliency
  • Stepping Off the Slippery Slope
  • Sleep & Wellness: Learning to Cherish Your Sleep
  • Kicking the Habit and Ending the Fear
  • High Blood Pressure: One of the Few Things in Life We Can Control
  • Friendship is Powerful Medicine
  • It's Flu Season: Get the Vaccine!
  • The Healing Power of Gratitude
  • Where's the Joy?
  • New Year's Resolutions to Live By
  • Preventing Falls: A Leading Health Risk for the Older Population
  • Staying Healthy in the Office
  • Exercising at Home and Staying Fit in the Winter
  • Cardiac Rehabilitation: Regaining a Healthier and Better Life
  • Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children
  • A Screening That Has Saved More than a Million Lives
  • How Walking Can Change Your Life
  • Injury-Free Sports & Activities
  • Have a Healthy Summer
  • Head to a Farmers' Market
  • Just Breathe
  • Lyme Disease Facts
  • Mindful Eating
  • Empathy in Healthcare
  • Preparing Your Family for an Emergency
  • Helping Someone to Cope with Opioid Addiction
  • Breast Cancer Awareness: Mammograms Save Lives
  • Antibiotic Resistance
  • Lung Cancer Screening
  • Giving Thanks
  • Healthy Holidays

Advanced Cardiac Imaging

Advanced cardiac imaging: unlocking mysteries of the heart
By Vikas Veeranna, MD

When it happens, it’s often front-page news: a high school athlete, a rising national sports star or another seemingly healthy person suddenly collapses and dies, saddening and mystifying everyone. The culprit, almost always, is a previously undetected heart condition, often genetic, that was a time bomb waiting to go off.

 All of those victims suffered from a specific form of a broad range of diseases of the heart muscle collectively called cardiomyopathy. Though the causes often remain a mystery and the victims may have no warning symptoms, recent advances in cVEERANNA.jpgardiac imaging, namely MRIs and PET scans, are making it increasingly possible for doctors to detect, diagnose, differentiate and treat these diseases before it’s too late.

Much of the attention to these sudden cardiac deaths over the past few decades has been around the shocking loss of young, thriving athletes, including nationally known stars like basketball players Reggie Lewis and Peter Maravich and U.S. Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman.  But not all victims are athletes.  Many are just average young people, usually in their early teens to late 20s, who suddenly die from an undetected heart condition, sometimes in their sleep. 

To understand the risks and responses better, let’s take a closer look at two of the many forms of cardiomyopathy typically affecting younger people: 

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common genetic disease of the heart. The walls of the heart muscle become thickened and stiff, obstructing blood flow and disrupting the heart's electrical system. HCM is the most prevalent cause of heart-related sudden death in people under 30. It's the most common identifiable cause of sudden death in athletes. Historically, HCM often has gone undetected. But thanks to recent advances in cardio-diagnostic tools like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we are increasingly able to pinpoint this disease. 

The strongest risk factor for HCM is a family history of the disease.  Absent that, a patient with heart murmur, an unexplained fainting episode, an irregular EKG or other suspicious symptoms should be considered for further diagnosis, ultimately including an MRI of the heart.  If a patient is found to have HCM and deemed high risk for sudden death, they usually get a defibrillator implant which delivers an electrical current to the heart if needed to get them out of fatal heart rhythms. They also are prescribed specific medications or may need procedures to relieve obstruction to blood flow. With treatment, HCM patients can expect a normal life span with reasonable physical activity, but must limit or completely give up sports involving sudden-burst exertion. 

Infiltrative Cardiomyopathy includes a group of heart disorders in which the ventricle walls of the heart become stiff due to buildup of abnormal substances within the heart muscle. These conditions can be inherited or acquired.  Cardiac sarcoidosis is one such condition, usually striking between ages 20 to 40’s.  It may occur when heart muscle is gradually infiltrated by microscopic clumps of inflammatory cells. It can have many of the same symptoms as heart failure, such as shortness of breath, abnormal rhythms and fluid buildup, but can often be fatal.

Diagnosis is often challenging and needs specialized testing. That can include cardiac MRIs, which may show patches of scarring in the heart muscle, and PET scans, using a special dye that “lights up” areas of active inflammation. These tests are known to pick up even the earliest signs of the disease and also help monitor it during treatment. Treatments include steroids and other heart medications, the insertion of pacemaker and defibrillator and, in extreme cases, heart transplant.

We continue to seek new and better ways to detect and treat these serious, sometimes silent heart diseases. Advanced cardiac imaging has helped us take one step closer to unlocking these mysteries sooner.

Vikas Veeranna, MD, is a cardiologist specializing in advanced cardiac imaging at Berkshire Medical Center.

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