If you are having a heart attack, time is muscle.

Heart attacks happen when a blockage in your coronary arteries prevents blood flow to the heart. Your heart is a muscle. It needs the oxygen carried by the blood. If it can not get oxygen, the muscle tissue will die.

The sooner the blockage that is causing the heat attack can be cleared, the better your chance for survival and full recovery. That is why we have a rapid response program in Larimer County called Cardiac Alert.

Cardiac Alert works this way:
Emergency paramedics who are trained to interpret EKG's, respond to a 911 call for a possible heart attack. They attach a 12-lead EKG to the patient's chest to get an accurate cardiac reading , right there in the field. If the EKG indicates that the patient is having a heart attack, the paramedics contact the cardiac catheterization team at the nearest hospital. The patient can then be brought immediately to the cath lab to have the blockage cleared.

Precious time is saved by bypassing the emergency room and bringing the patient straight to the cath lab, saving time a muscle.
In the cath lab, the team is ready and waiting to perform an angioplasty, where stents or balloons are placed to the open the blockage. Blood starts flowing to the heart muscle again and the heat attack is over.

What this means for the patient:
The Cardiac Alert program means faster treatment. And faster treatment means we can save more heart muscle.

Click here to read the full article.

Dr. Lamounier among 1,189 Initiated into American College of Surgeons

CHICAGO — Dr. Lamounier was among 1,189 Initiates from around the world who became Fellows of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) during convocation ceremonies at the College's 94th annual Clinical Congress in San Francisco last month.

Dr. Lamounier received a medical doctorate degree in 1998 from Universidade de Santo Amaro-Brazil and is currently practicing at the Heart Center of the Rockies located in Colorado. In 2005, Dr. Lamounier attained board certification from the American Board of Surgery (or Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada). Dr. Lamounier has a strong professional interest Mitral Valve Surgery and holds membership in other professional societies, including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the Minimally Invasive Robotic Association.

By meeting the College's stringent membership requirements, Fellows of the College have earned the distinguished right to use the designation of "FACS" (Fellow, American College of Surgeons) after their names. An applicant for Fellowship must be a graduate of an approved medical school; must possess certification by an American surgical specialty board or appropriate certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada; and must have been in practice in the same geographic location for at least one year at the time of his or her application.

Click here to read the full press release.

There are a number of different problems that are classified as “heart disease,” but the main one is coronary artery disease.

Most people know that their heart is a muscle. It’s a muscle that pumps blood to the rest of your body.  It also has its own, separate blood supply that keeps the muscle tissue alive.

That’s the job of the coronary arteries. They are the blood vessels that bring oxygen to the heart muscle itself.
 
In Coronary Artery disease, the coronary arteries can become clogged with plaque and inflammatory cells. When this happens, the blood supply to part of the heart can be cut off, which essentially kills the heart muscle.

That’s why heart disease prevention is so important. If we can prevent the coronary arteries from getting clogged with atherosclerotic plaque in the first place, we’re in good shape. But once the clogging process starts, it tends to make itself worse. Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death in every developed country.

Click here to read more about Coronary Artery Disease.

Click the image below to watch Dr. Stephen Treat on Colorado and Company.