American Heart Month is Perfect Time for Prevention

Take care of the ones you love this February by paying special attention to their (and your own) heart health. 

Dr. Tim Schloss, co-director of cardiovascular services at SSM Heart Institute at St. Clare Health Center, said that specializing in cardiology is unique because he has the ability to take care of patients in the long-term, yet also use procedures immediately in the short-term if necessary.

In fact, the first 90 minutes from the time a possible heart attack patient enters the hospital are the most critical.

“A heart attack occurs because one of the vessels that supplies the heart with blood becomes blocked with a blood clot,” Schloss said. “The blood can’t get to that area of the heart and there’s no oxygen—then if it’s without oxygen for a long amount of time that cell with die. If you get the artery open rapidly that limits the amount of heart cells that may die.”  

SSM Health Care hospitals report that every heart attack patient who came into one of their hospitals in 2011 had his or her blocked heart arteries opened in fewer than those critical 90 minutes from the time of hospital arrival. The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology set the 90-minute standard for the deadliest type of heart attack—an ST-elevated myocardial infarction.

Even though the official clock starts the minute a patient enters the emergency room and stops when the cardiologist successfully inflates a balloon inside the blocked artery, emergency personnel (EMS) are trained to work with hospital staff even before a patient hits emergency room doors.

The SSM Heart Institute created new protocols by working with the local EMS teams to train their staff to properly identify signs of a blocked artery.

“When a patient has chest pain, what they would normally do is call 911 and then EMS arrives at the door and evaluates them,” Schloss said. “With the help of a first responder we can determine if it could be a heart attack.”

EMS personnel are able to directly call the SSM cardiac catheterization (cath) labs from the field and speak with an expert while the patient is still in transit. The team at the hospital is then mobilized and ready to take the patient straight to the cath lab and bypass an evaluation in the emergency room. 

“We can be one step ahead and have our team assembled and ready for when the patient arrives,” Schloss said.

Schloss said that it’s difficult to pinpoint warning signs those at home can look for because heart attacks are different in everyone. One can feel pressure; discomfort in the chest; neck or arm; shortness of breath or feeling sweaty.

To boost heart health, Schloss said that the most important things people can do is avoid tobacco, keep an active lifestyle, keep a good height to weight ratio, and check in with your doctor to make sure you aren’t a high risk factor for high blood pressure and diabetes.

“It’s never too early to start considering our heart health. Our eating habits are established with our children—it’s important for parents to keep in mind that heart health is very important and to try to avoid heart problems in the future,” he said. “The best thing about being a cardiologist is the sense of really being able to help someone when they need it, the ability to affect them when they are vulnerable and to be able to follow them for years and to keep them healthy.”

SSM Heart Institute services are available at five SSM hospitals located in St. Louis and St. Charles counties. For more information, visit www.ssmhealth.com/heart.