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Coronary Artery Disease Care

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Or call us at: Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe County: 786-204-4200
Palm Beach County: 561-244-7720

Coronary Artery Disease Care

Coronary artery disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. It affects millions of Americans. If you’re one of them, you need expert care. At Baptist Health, our multidisciplinary team is ready to help patients just like you.

When you come to us for coronary artery disease treatment, you’ll receive comprehensive, compassionate care from our highly trained specialists. We use leading-edge technologies and techniques to treat your existing coronary artery disease or to determine your risk for developing it.

As South Florida heart care leaders, we’re ready to help you manage your condition and reduce your chances of having a heart attack.

Our Approach to Coronary Artery Disease Care

Our Approach to Coronary Artery Disease Care

Coronary artery disease can be complex. That’s why we take a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to your care from the start, bringing together experts with a wide range of skills to find the right treatment for you.

Conversations with the imaging specialists and technologists who examine and evaluate your diagnostic tests frequently point us to the best therapy. But some coronary artery disease cases are more complicated. To find answers for these patients, we brainstorm treatment ideas during meetings with our team of cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, vascular specialists and heart surgeons.

  • 18.2 million

    People in the U.S., age 20 and older, who have coronary artery disease

  • 20%

    The percent of deaths from coronary artery disease in adults younger than 65 years

What Is Coronary Artery Disease?

Coronary artery disease happens when the blood vessels that bring oxygen-rich blood to your heart become inflamed and narrowed. It’s caused by atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty deposits called plaque on the inside of your blood vessels.

Just like carotid artery disease can cause a stroke, coronary artery disease can cause a heart attack. Narrow blood vessels can reduce or cut off blood flow to your heart. Or a blood clot can form on top of the plaque buildup. If either of these things happen, you can have a heart attack.

Risk factors for atherosclerosis include:

  • Diabetes
  • Diet high in saturated fat
  • Family history
  • Genetic factors
  • High blood pressure
  • High cholesterol
  • Lack of exercise
  • Male gender
  • Older age
  • Overweight
  • Race
  • Smoking

Diagnosing Coronary Artery Disease

Whenever possible, we try to use minimally invasive testing to determine if you need coronary artery disease care. There are many diagnostic heart testing options available that can help us understand your risk level for developing coronary artery disease. We frequently use:

We know it’s important for you to know whether your heart is healthy. Our $99 cardiac calcium scoring is a quick 30-minute, noninvasive way to measure the buildup of plaque in your arteries. You are a candidate for this test if you’re between ages 40 and 65 and you have any of these risk factors:

  • Diabetes
  • Family history of heart disease
  • High blood pressure
  • High cholesterol
  • Obesity
  • Smoking

Coronary Artery Disease Treatment

Improving your blood flow and preventing the buildup of plaque in your veins is our priority. Medication therapies — blood thinners (anticoagulants) and blood pressure medication — are always our first treatment options. But if they don’t work, our expert surgeons can perform the most advanced traditional and minimally invasive procedures to treat your coronary artery disease.

We will work with you to identify the treatment option that will work best for you.

  • Your surgeon threads a long, thin tube (a catheter) carrying a small balloon through a vein in your groin to the blocked coronary artery. They inflate the balloon to open the artery for more blood flow and then implant a small, expandable metal mesh coil (a stent) to keep the artery open.

  • During coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, your surgeon removes part of a healthy blood vessel from your chest wall or lower leg and attaches it to your blocked heart artery, creating a path for blood to flow around your blockage.

  • An off-pump CABG is a CABG procedure completed without a heart-lung (cardiopulmonary bypass) machine. Our surgeons can complete off-pump procedures with traditional surgery or with minimally invasive techniques that use smaller cuts through the ribs.

  • This leading-edge procedure lets our surgeons use a highly sophisticated robot to conduct a coronary bypass procedure. A tiny camera attached to the robotic arm gives them a 3D view so they can complete the surgery as a closed-chest procedure.

Meet our Coronary Artery Disease Specialists

Meet our Coronary Artery Disease Specialists

Our coronary artery disease program has an exceptional multidisciplinary team dedicated to delivering the highest quality care. We bring cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists and vascular specialists together to provide the inpatient and outpatient vascular care you need.

Our Locations

Find a location near you in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.

Coronary Artery Disease Clinical Trials

At Baptist Health, we are passionate about improving care. Our robust research department actively leads and participates in clinical trials that are exploring new treatments and tests for this condition. Providing better patient outcomes is always our priority. If you’re interested in being a partner in our research and want to learn more about our clinical trials, talk with your doctor or view our list of ongoing trials.

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