The good news is that 85% of heart disease cases can be halted or prevented – if the conditions that lead to heart attack are diagnosed early. As a leading heart hospital of Little Rock, BAPTIST HEALTH offers state–of–the–art diagnostic tools and some of the best Arkansas cardiovascular surgeons available to provide you with the care you need and deserve.

Click on the links to the right and you'll find information on many procedures for early diagnosis of heart disease and information on treatments for heart disease.

BAPTIST HEALTH Advanced Heart Care Technologies include:

Amplatzer Closure Device
An Amplatzer Closure Device offers a potential alternative to expensive, invasive surgical procedures. It is used to close certain types of circulatory and heart defects. These defects include Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), Patent Dectus Arteriosus, and Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). Until recently, the only way of repairing an Atrial Septal Defect involved open-heart surgery. The primary advantage of this procedure is that it is a non-surgical technique and is an alternative to open heart surgery.

Cerebral Aneurism Coiling
Cerebral Aneurism Coiling is inserting a catheter carrying a very thin platinum coil (GDC for Guglielmi Detachable Coil) through the vein in the patient's groin. The catheter is then guided using an angiogram (a special type of x-ray procedure) through the vein into the affected area of the brain. The aneurism sac is then fitted with the GDC. Once the coils are released into the aneurism, the blood flow pattern within the aneurism is altered, and the slow or sluggish remaining blood flow leads to a thrombosis (clot) of the aneurism. In two or three days the aneurism is fully blocked preventing further bleeding. The ultimate goal is that the aneurism would be obliterated instead of a new channel developing through it.

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Endografts
When the large blood vessel (abdominal aorta) that supplies blood to the abdomen, pelvis, and legs becomes abnormally large or balloons outward. Thin, hollow tubes called catheters are inserted through arteries in your groin. These tubes allow the grafts to be placed without making a large cut in your abdomen. In addition, you may recover sooner. However, not all patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms are candidates for endovascular repair.

Atrial Fibrillation Ablations
The rapid, irregular heart beat that frequetly occurs after Coronary artery bypass graft surgery and heart valve surgery. For years, the only method that doctors had to treat A.F. was with medicine. This has proven to be only moderately effective. One of the newest advances in treating this disease is A.F. ablation. This can be done peripherally, through a vein in the groin, as an adjunct during open heart surgery or in the O.R., using one of the new minimally invasive surgical techniques. During the ablation, a catheter with a special radio-frequency catheter is placed in the area that is commonly demonstrated as the site of origin of these irregular beats. The tissue is heated and the tissue's ability to produce an electrical current is eliminated.

Endovascular Vein Harvest
This technique uses a small incision and camera to harvest a vein from the patient's leg that will be used to replace the blocked vessels of the heart. This minimally invasive procedure replaces an open incision technique and offers fewer incisions, less discomfort, reduced risk of infection and improved recovery time.