2 | MUSChealth.org/heart MUSC HEALTH HEART & VASCULAR CENTER If you are sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office keenly aware – or even mildly suspicious – that your heart is not healthy, you are one of many in our state. Heart disease is South Carolina’s number one leading cause of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC). “Unfortunately, South Carolina has pretty high rates of many risk factors that we know contribute to heart disease,” said Dr. Brannon Traxler, director of public health at SCDHEC. “Risk factors include smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and lack of exercise.” Half of the adults in South Carolina do not get the CDC’s recommended 30 minutes a day, five days a week of physical activity – a sedentary lifestyle that is estimated as a cause of 30% of coronary heart disease, or hardening of the arteries, SCDHEC confirmed in 2020. Statistics were startling before the pandemic and have remained alarming since. “There is a tidal wave of patients with heart failure,” said Dr. Anthony Carnicelli, an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist with MUSC Health Heart & Vascular Center. “During COVID, people sought less care. Either they could not get in for care, or they were less likely to go in and the disease progressed. Offices and hospital beds were also filled with COVID patients.” The progression of heart failure due to COVID is not the patient’s fault, Dr. Carnicelli added. Heart disease is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of heart conditions, one of which is heart failure – when your heart doesn’t pump enough blood for your body’s needs. In the United States, there are 5 million individuals with congestive heart failure and approximately 250,000 with advanced heart failure who could benefit from either a heart transplant or ventricular assist devices. The MUSC Health Heart & Vascular Center has a premier, multidisciplinary advanced heart failure program and is the state’s only transplant center. “Coordinated care in one place is critical,” said Dr. Carnicelli. “Heart failure impacts so many other parts of the body that medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties have to work closely together to ensure the best outcome for each of our patients.” SOUTH CAROLINA HEARTS ARE FAILING Heart failure comes in many forms. It can be acute, where the condition develops suddenly and goes away with time, or chronic, where the condition develops slowly and may worsen over an extended period of time. The two major causes are either ischemic cardiomyopathy – blockages are present in heart vessels – or nonischemic cardiomyopathy, which means heart failure without blockages. Less common causes of heart failure include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the walls of the heart are very thick, as well as peripartum cardiomyopathy, which develops in women after pregnancy. There is also the possibility of congenital heart disease. Cardiogenic shock, one of the most severe forms of acute heart failure, requires immediate attention and often intensive care. MUSC Health has a new cardiogenic shock program that includes a conference line or “shock team” made up of specialists who can hop on an emergency conference call to provide a consensus opinion to cardiogenic shock patients who need highly specific, immediate care. “Coordinated care in one place is critical,” said Dr. Carnicelli. “Heart failure impacts so many other parts of the body that medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties have to work closely together to ensure the best outcome for each of our patients.” FAST FACTS ABOUT HEART FAILURE
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