{"id":1984,"date":"2022-03-15T22:36:03","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T22:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=1984"},"modified":"2023-09-27T13:23:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T13:23:12","slug":"coronary-artery-disease","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/coronary-artery-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronary Artery Disease &#038; Heart Valve Surgery: What Should Patients Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Patients diagnosed with heart valve disease may be surprised to learn that they also suffer from coronary artery disease.\u00a0 And, vice versa, patients diagnosed with coronary artery disease may be confused to learn they unknowingly have valvular disorders including aortic stenosis and\/or mitral regurgitation.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how or when you are diagnosed with coronary artery disease, it is critical for patients to know that atherosclerosis kills over 360,000 each year in the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about the relationship between heart valve disease and coronary artery disease, we interviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gerdisch-Indianapolis-Indiana.php\">Dr. Marc Gerdisch<\/a>, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Franciscan Health in Indianapolis, Indiana.\u00a0 A heart valve expert, Dr. Gerdisch has performed over 6,000 cardiac procedures of which more than 4,000 operations involved heart valve repair and\/or heart valve replacement therapies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tIpbCCZGduM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Learnings About Coronary Artery Disease &amp; Heart Valve Surgery<\/h2>\n<p>Important learnings shared by Dr. Gerdisch in our interview include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There is a distinct and complex relationship between coronary artery disease and heart valve disease.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"s1\">Coronary arteries are the blood vessels that feed the heart muscle itself. When the left ventricle squeezes to eject blood into the aorta and out to the body, the first branches that the blood flows into are the branches that go into the heart muscle itself. While the heart is feeding the whole body, it\u2019s also feeding the coronary arteries that feeds the heart muscle.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1995 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/heart-attack-coronary-artery-disease.jpg\" alt=\"Coronary Artery Disease Heart Attack\" width=\"700\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"s1\"><span class=\"s1\"><span class=\"s1\">If the small blood vessels that feed the heart muscle get blocked, the heart is deprived of blood flow and oxygen.\u00a0 Dr. Gerdisch states, &#8220;When people say someone had a heart attack, it\u2019s because there was low blood flow or an absence of blood flow to the heart muscle due to blockage of one of those little blood vessels and then that area was deprived of oxygen and then that area can die. Those heart muscles themselves can die. That\u2019s a heart attack.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/profileImages\/306_129_173.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Marc Gerdisch\" width=\"129\" height=\"173\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gerdisch-Indianapolis-Indiana.php\">Dr. Marc Gerdisch<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Common symptoms of both cardiac diseases overlap and include chest pain, shortness of breath and fatigue.\u00a0 However, there can be an overwhelming patient symptom of chest pressure prior to a heart attack.<\/li>\n<li>There is a complex relationship among coronary artery disease and heart valve disease. The process by which aortic valve leaflets become stenotic is similar to the atherosclerotic changes that result from coronary artery disease. Patients who have aortic valve sclerosis have a 50% risk of heart attack (myocardial infarction).<\/li>\n<li>Managing the progression and the patient risk factors for coronary artery disease (diabetes, cholesterol, weight, smoking) will also help manage the progression of aortic valve disease.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1991 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/heart-attack-risk-factors-valve.jpg\" alt=\"Heart Attack Risk Factors\" width=\"634\" height=\"636\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are new approaches to heart valve disease therapy that are impacting the treatment of coronary artery disease in patients.\u00a0 Dr. Gerdisch states, &#8220;If\u00a0 we\u2019re going to do a transcatheter valve for an elderly patient who has three leaflet valve disease and it\u2019s a straightforward scenario&#8230; Then, we do the catheterization and we just happen to find this blocked artery. What do we do with it? Early on, we pretty much treated the coronary artery disease aggressively. Now, the data has come out that often we don\u2019t need to.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Heart attacks may cause structural issues within the architecture of the heart that can lead to advanced forms of valvular disorders including mitral valve disease.<\/li>\n<li>Many patients who have coronary artery disease and heart valve disease may require a &#8220;heart team&#8221; approach to effectively manage and treat these cardiac disorders with variant therapies that can be open-heart, minimally-invasive and transcatheter.\u00a0 Dr. Gerdisch states, &#8220;There\u2019s a relationship there where sometimes we have to address the coronaries when we address the aortic valve. Sometimes we don\u2019t. Or, we put a stent in. Sometimes patients need a transcatheter valve. Sometimes patients need surgery. Then, in the mitral valve, we have this really difficult to manage scenario where there can be injury to the heart muscle, change in the shape of the ventricle impacting the performance of the mitral valve. In those cases, it really requires a team approach and sorting out the best way to treat that patient.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Resynchronization therapy using a special type of pacemaker can help patients that struggle with coronary artery disease and mitral valve disease. Dr. Gerdisch states, &#8220;When I say resynchronization, I\u2019m talking about a special type of pacemaker that makes sure that both lower chambers of the heart are squeezing synchronously. Interestingly enough, in some of those patients, the mitral valve gets better just by being resynchronized.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Many Thanks to Dr. Gerdisch &amp; Franciscan Health!!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of our entire patient community, many thanks to Dr. Gerdisch for sharing his clinical experience and research with our community!\u00a0 Also, many thanks to the Franciscan Health team for taking such great care of heart valve patients.<\/p>\n<p>Related links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/pain-management\/\">Heart Surgery Innovations: A New Approach to Pain Management<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/atrial-fibrillation-cox-maze-iv\/\">Atrial Fibrillation: A Concern for Heart Valve Patients<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/aortic-valve-repair\/\">Aortic Valve Repair: Top 5 Facts for Patients<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the hearing impaired members of our patient community, I have provided a written transcript of this video below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"class_list":["post-1984","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-adams-updates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1984"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3804,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1984\/revisions\/3804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}