Middleburg, Fla. (July 27, 2023) – Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County now offers a new technology that detects whether patients who experience recurring chest pain (angina) may suffer from coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD), a condition that disrupts blood flow through the heart’s smallest blood vessels.
Although 50 to 65 percent of patients who have angina with non-obstructive coronary artery disease have CMD, the disease is often overlooked because scans that show blood flow through arteries or veins (angiograms) cannot detect abnormalities within the smallest heart vessels, which can be the size of a few human hairs.
Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County uses the CoroFlow Cardiovascular System to estimate the flow in the macro- and microvasculature of the heart, allowing doctors to precisely diagnose the cause of the patient’s angina, a critical first step in optimizing patient treatment plans that can improve outcomes and quality of life.
“The process from the onset of symptoms to receiving an accurate diagnosis can take a long time for patients with CMD,” said Dr. Salman Farhat, a cardiologist at Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County. “This new technology solution gives us the clarity we need to provide our patients personalized care and improve their quality of life through treatment.”
About 1 in 25 adults in the United States are affected by angina and undergo coronary angiography. Unfortunately, angiography only assesses the larger arteries, not the smaller vessels responsible for regulating and distributing blood flow to the heart, leading patients to remain undiagnosed.
With this innovative technology, doctors can quickly diagnose patients’ microvascular heart disease and begin treatment that improves their heart health and reduces their heart attack risk.
To learn more about heart care at Ascension St. Vincent’s, visit www.ascension.org/JaxHeart.
