Introduction Patients with AF who are above the age of 65, or have co-morbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure, vascular disease or heart failure are at an increased risk of stroke. It is understood that these patients are at a higher risk of stagnation of blood within the heart; the stagnant blood can form clots within the heart and these clots can get dislodged, travel to the brain, and [...]
An echocardiogram is an ultrasound-based assessment of the heart. It is painless, harmless, readily available in most hospitals and can give a large amount of very useful information about the structure and function of the heart. As atrial fibrillation can be caused by a structural problem with the heart such as heart valve disease or heart muscle weakness, the echo can help to elucidate the und [...]
A patent foramen ovale (PFO) is best thought of as a communication at the level of the atrial septum between the left heart and the right heart. It is found in 25-30% of a normal healthy population and usually does not cause any symptoms, impact on quality of life or lifespan. Many people refer to it as a ‘hole in the heart’ although strictly speaking, a PFO is more like a flap or a partially ope [...]
Introduction: Medical care for patients who have a diagnosis of POTS remains hugely unsatisfactory. POTS or rather dysautonomia is a very heterogenous condition. No two people are exactly the same. There is no one single aetiology that can even sometimes be identified. Often the patient who is really suffering looks alright from the outside. Many doctors, largely out of ignorance or perhaps arroga [...]
I got sick with Lyme Disease in 2012. I did get bites and presented to a doctor with the bulls eye rash, they gave my a week of standard antibiotics and a steroid cream and sent me on my way. I knew nothing about Lyme Disease at the time and unfortunately neither did the doctor I saw. I wish I knew what that rash meant at the time and got a course of doxycycline and would have been spared the comp [...]
Today I wanted to discuss an interesting but also potentially very dangerous condition called pulmonary hypertension. I refer to it as interesting for 3 reasons: Most heart disease tends to affect older people but pulmonary hypertension can affect young people as well. The symptoms in the early stages can be non-specific and not dramatic and therefore may not get taken as seriously by the patient [...]
What is it? SCAD is an uncommon but potentially dangerous cause for heart attacks in young patients and especially young women (less than 50 years of age). Most heart attacks occur because of a blockage in the lumen of a coronary artery. This is usually because of build-up of atherosclerotic plaque over a number of years and this is why heart attacks are more common in the elderly. In SCAD however [...]
Wolff Parkinson White syndrome is an unusual heart rhythm condition in which patients can develop sudden onset of fast heart palpitations. These can be associated with light-headedness/dizziness, blackouts, chest pain and in very rare cases, sudden death. However the good news is that this is a completely curable condition. Wolff –Parkinson-White syndrome was first described by 3 physicians – Loui [...]
What is peripartum cardiomyopathy? This is also known as pregnancy associated cardiomyopathy and is a relatively uncommon condition which affects women either late during pregnancy or within 5 months of giving birth and is characterised by the development of heart muscle weakness (also called heart failure) To be diagnosed with peripartum cardiomyopathy, 3 criteria need to be met 1) Development of [...]
What is atrial flutter? Atrial flutter is an abnormal heart rhythm. In atrial flutter, the atria contract at 300 beats per minute and every other impulse goes down into the ventricles and therefore the ventricles beat at 150 beats per minute. In patients who are taking medications such as beta blockers or calcium blockers the impulses reaching the ventricles may be reduced even more so the heart r [...]
One of the subjects I have become very interested in POTS. For those who don’t know POTS, it stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and is characterised by an excessive increase in heart rate when the patient is upright and this can be extremely unsettling. Along with the racing heart beat, the patient may feel tremulous and dizzy. In addition, patients with POTS have many other symp [...]
Anticoagulants act by delaying the ability of blood to form clots. Doctors commonly refer to them as ‘blood thinners’ however strictly speaking they don't thin the blood but merely reduce the ability for the blood to clot. Commonly used anticoagulants which can be taken orally include Warfarin and the NOACs. There is an anticoagulant which can be used as an injection called Heparin but it is impra [...]
Angina is a fancy term for a symptom of chest discomfort (rather than necessarily pain) which comes from the heart. This means that if a patient has no symptoms then they don’t have angina. In its severest form angina can lead to a heart attack. Angina is caused because the supply of blood does not quite meet the requirements of the heart muscle and therefore the heart muscle does not get as much [...]
Sanjay was featured in the August 2018 edition of WAG magazine. Read the feature online, starting on page 72: WAG Magazine Online [...]
Breathlessness is a very common symptom and may be caused by underlying heart disease. Apart from heart disease, breathlessness can be caused by several other conditions. These include being unfit, being overweight, and even just getting older. Other important causes include anemia and lung disease. In this article, I will discuss how you can work out if the breathlessness could be caused by unde [...]
My most viewed video on youtube to date has been on the benefits of Magnesium on our overall health. In this blog, I summarise the most useful points from that video. 1) The majority of chronic illnesses are driven by chronic inflammation. With regards to the heart, atherosclerosis (hardening of our blood vessels) is the process that eventually leads to heart attacks and this is caused by chron [...]
Patients who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF) and who are above the age of 65 or have co-morbidities such as high blood pressure, Diabetes, heart failure or vascular disease have a 5-fold higher risk of suffering strokes. A significant proportion of the strokes are believed to be as a consequence of blood clots which have formed within the heart and then been dislodged and travell [...]
Introduction Patients who suffer from AF and who are above the age of 65 years or have additional comorbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure and vascular disease have a much higher risk of suffering a stroke and it is for this reason they are prescribed anticoagulants. For several years, the only available oral anticoagulant which was proven to reduce strokes in such patien [...]
