February is Heart Month in Canada, but every month is heart month at St. Paul’s Hospital. The expert team at the hospital’s provincial Heart Centre provides world-class cardiac care and research year-round. Every year more than 5,000 heart patients from across BC benefit from the highly specialized treatments and research available at St. Paul’s.

Below are some of the hot heart topics this year. St. Paul’s heart experts are available for interviews on each topic, and patient interviews can also be arranged.

Adult congenital heart disease

Trend: Medical progress has resulted in more effective early diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease in infants and children. As a result, the number of these patients living to adulthood has almost doubled in the past generation. Today one in 250 adults is living with congenital heart disease. St. Paul’s Hospital is home of the province’s only adult congenital heart program.

Story idea: St. Paul’s specialists are now able to perform a new breakthrough procedure using a minimally invasive device that enables specialists to replace one of the heart valves commonly damaged by congenital heart disease. In coming years, this could save many patients the pain and long recovery associated with undergoing open-heart surgeries. Congenital heart patients can face repeated valve replacement procedures during their lifetime.

Story idea: Women discouraged from the “danger” of pregnancy a generation ago because of their congenital heart disease are now having children of their own, but it often takes a team of specialists to help women with congenital heart disease maintain their health during pregnancy and go on to deliver a healthy baby. With the unique combination of congenital heart disease specialists, skilled obstetricians, a Special Care Nursery and a full menu of critical care services, St. Paul’s Hospital is able to provide the care needed by these women and their newborns.

Heart failure

Trend: Do you know of someone living with heart failure? If not, chances are you soon will. With our aging population, and more people surviving heart disease or life-threatening heart attacks, chronic heart failure is now a huge challenge for our medical system.

Story idea: Staying healthy with heart failure requires access to the most up-to-date treatments. St. Paul’s is home to the province’s largest heart failure program, where a team of experts that include specially trained nurses, dieticians and social workers and cardiologists are focused on helping patients develop and maintain healthy lifestyles. The program will provide education about heart failure and associated risk factors for members of the public at Heart Failure Awareness Day, Friday, February 23 in the Holiday Inn Express at Metrotown, Burnaby.

Story idea: St. Paul’s Hospital is home to Western Canada’s first Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Program, which enables patients to be implanted with a pump device that takes over from their damaged heart until a transplant is available. Only five per cent of people who receive a VAD recover without transplant. A young St. Paul’s patient recently beat the odds and became the first in the country to recover after needing two simultaneous VAD implants to temporarily support her damaged heart. In addition, newer, longer-term VADs are becoming available that can extend the life of someone with medical problems and may preclude a heart transplant.

New procedures that minimize pain and recovery for patients

Trend: Correcting heart problems with minimally invasive procedures has revolutionized cardiac care since angioplasties (unblocking coronary arteries using catheters instead of bypass surgery) became available in Vancouver more than 20 years ago. St. Paul’s remains at the forefront of developing new cardiac catheter procedures.

Story idea:  Two years ago, patients who needed heart valve replacements invariably required open-heart surgery, a stay in the ICU and at least six weeks recovery. Now, minimally invasive valve replacement and repairs have become a reality. At first open only to patients who would not survive open-heart surgery, these procedures are likely to become an option for a wider variety of patients.

Story idea: Cardiologist Dr. John Webb was St. Pau’s first purpose-trained interventional cardiologist when he joined the hospital in 1990. Webb is now considered to be one of the best in the world in this field, thanks to his recent pioneering work in developing catheter-based “percutaneous” heart valve replacements. Between treating patients and teaching new techniques to other cardiologists around the world, Webb has found time to complete the Penticton Ironman Triathlon for the past two years.

Preventing heart disease before it happens

Trend: Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer of Canadians. When you consider our aging population with its increased incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes, it’s no wonder that the prevention and early detection of heart disease is becoming a growing priority and specialty in heart centres like St. Paul’s.

Story idea: One in five British Columbians are at much greater risk of developing both cardiovascular disease and diabetes. These people have a condition called Metabolic Syndrome, which is characterized by factors including excess weight around the waistline, high blood pressure and reduced HDL (good) cholesterol levels. Research shows that identifying these people, giving them practical help with lifestyle changes and providing medical treatment if needed, can make a vast difference in their future. The new Metabolic Syndrome Clinic opened in September 2006 at St. Paul’s is the first of its kind in the country.

Understanding more about heart attacks

Trend: Researchers are developing innovative methods of conducting research to help better predict heart attacks and assess gender differences in symptoms.

Story idea:  Cardiologist Dr. Jaap Hamburger is performing a virtual histology (tissue study) of coronary arteries during catheterization to assess the amount of plaque build-up on artery walls and what this means for the patient’s potential for heart attacks at a later date.

Story idea: A team of researchers at St. Paul’s is looking into the potential differences between men and women's symptoms of heart attacks. The study is being conducted in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab during angioplasty procedures, in which some of the circumstances of a heart attack are replicated.

About the Heart Centre at St. Paul’s

The St. Paul’s Heart Centre is known around the world for its care, treatment and support of people living with heart conditions. In addition to treating patients with heart disease, the Heart Centre focuses on prevention¾helping patients stay well and out of hospital.

The Centre also serves the province by providing highly specialized heart services such as mechanical device support for heart failure, heart transplants and specialized cardiac catheter procedures not available anywhere else in BC.

As a University of British Columbia teaching hospital, St. Paul’s is an important training facility for cardiac professionals and is a leader in heart disease research, both in the laboratory and in the clinic.