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Heart Disease: What Should A Woman Ask Her Doctor?

By EmpowHER
 
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Dr. DelGiorno explains the questions a woman should ask her cardiologist if she is concerned about heart disease. Dr. DelGiorno has a special interest in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease and cares for patients at Banner Heart Hospital in Mesa, Arizona.

Dr. DelGiorno:
There are lots of questions a female patient should ask their doctor. The doctor himself should be concerned about symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, exercise-related symptoms. Women’s symptoms are somewhat different than men so she needs to be very in tuned to that; shortness of breath, fatigue, exercise intolerance, dizziness or fainting or other symptoms that we would be concerned about.

More importantly we would also ask patients concerning risk factors that are associated with heart disease, things like a family history of heart disease. If you have an immediate uncle or a parent that has heart disease under the age of 55, if you have a history of hypertension, if you had diabetes, if you have a history of tobacco use knowing what your cholesterol level is, is very important and more specifically, knowing what your HDL is, what your LDL is, and in women things like triglycerides start to become important.

Inflammatory tests are now out to assess whether or not there’s inflammatory disease happening. Sometimes measuring CRP is becoming a little bit more important. So there are some things that a patient needs to know about themselves when they talk to a doctor and there’s some very important symptoms that they need to present to their physician in terms of making the diagnosis of heart disease.

About Dr. James DelGiorno, M.D.:
Dr. James J. DelGiorno is Board Certified in Cardiovascular Medicine and Internal Medicine. He completed his Fellowship in General Cardiology and Residency in Internal Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine after earning his Doctorate of Medicine from Pennsylvania State University.

Keywords:
Conditions: Heart Disease, Cardiovascular Disease, High Cholesterol, Coronary Artery Disease, High Blood Pressure

Related Terms: Pulmonary Embolism, HDL, LDL, Triglycerides, Chest Tightness, Shortness of Breath, Jaw Pain, Throat Pain, Stress Testing, Nuclear Stress Testing, Stress Echo, Cardiac Catheterization, Fatigue, Thromboembolism, Exercise Intolerance

Expert: Dr. Jim DelGiorno, James DelGiorno, M.D., Doctor James DelGiorno, Heart Expert Dr. Jim DelGiorno, Women's Heart Health Specialist Jim DelGiorno, M.D., Cardiovascular Medicine and Internal Medicine

Expertise: Peripheral Artery Disease, Heart Disease Risks, Heart Disease Management, Cardiac Metabolic Syndrome, Heart Disease Prevention, Blood Pressure Testing, Cholesterol Testing, Robotic Catheter Ablation, Coronary Artery Disease, Arrhythmia

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