Heart and Vascular Services

Heart disease kills nearly 2,400 Americans every day.¹ Our team of trained cardiologists and surgeons delivers advanced diagnostics and treatment to help Mid-South patients achieve and maintain heart health. Some of the many heart and vascular conditions we treat at Baptist include:

• Aneurysm: a bulging or a weakness in the wall of a blood vessel
• Angina: chest pain that can extend to the left arm, shoulder or jaw
• Arrhythmias: irregular heartbeat (too fast/too slow or skipping beats), including atrial fibrillation
• Cardiomyopathy: diseases in coronary muscle tissue, including an enlarged heart
• Coronary heart disease: coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and carotid artery disease
• Heart attack: (myocardial infarction), an interruption of the blood supply to the heart’s muscle tissue
• Heart failure: weakened or damaged heart muscle causing the heart to work too hard to keep up with the body’s blood demands
• Peripheral artery and peripheral vascular disease: Narrowing of arteries that reduce blood flow to your limbs
• Stroke (including ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs)): occurs when a blocked blood vessel deprives areas of the brain of oxygen – because this problem ends up affecting the brain, neurologists may collaborate with the heart specialist on stroke cases.
• Valvular heart disease: heart valve damage caused by rheumatic fever, infections, connective tissue disorders, radiation treatments or medications

Diagnosis is the first step in treating heart disease. The following are just some of the tests available at Baptist Heart Institute.

These procedures help cardiologists diagnose and treat certain cardiovascular conditions, such as disease of the heart muscle, valves or coronary arteries. During cardiac catheterization, a long thin tube called a catheter is inserted in an artery or vein in your groin, neck or arm and threaded through your blood vessels to your heart.

Electrophysiology (EP) focuses on the electrical system of your heart. Baptist’s cardiologists perform procedures such as cardioversion, EP studies and ablations and tilt table tests. They also implant permanent pacemakers, internal cardiac defibrillators, biventricular pacemakers and defibrillators and internal loop recorders.

¹Source: American Heart Association, based on 2019 data

Baptist Heart Institute is home to the first pulmonary hypertension center in the Mid-South. The Baptist Comprehensive Pulmonary Hypertension Center specializes in diagnosing, treating and managing pulmonary hypertension, an umbrella term used to describe a group of diseases that cause high pressures in the lung circulation.

Treating and managing pulmonary hypertension is complex. However, most pulmonary hypertension centers in the nation are run by either pulmonologists or cardiologists, but not both. Experience has taught us that a dedicated multidisciplinary team including pulmonologists, cardiologists, specialty pharmacists, nurses and respiratory therapists is vital to delivering the best care for such a complex condition. At Baptist Comprehensive Pulmonary Hypertension Center, we were able to establish such a team and we see the strength of this multidisciplinary approach in almost all of our patients.

If not treated in timely manner, certain forms of pulmonary hypertension can cause more serious problems. Symptoms can be elusive and nonspecific leading to delayed diagnosis. Furthermore, managing this condition is highly specialized and very specific to the kind of pulmonary hypertension the patient has, which makes timely treatment that much more important. The Baptist Comprehensive Pulmonary Hypertension Center is the only clinic in the Mid-South with experienced physicians and other health care professionals who specialize in the early detection and treatment of this condition.

Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation's Heart Fund provides financial support for initiatives that benefit heart patients and their care. Donations are earmarked for research, equipment, staff education and other patient-related needs. The fund has provided thousands of dollars for equipment for heart patients, including the HeartMate^® left ventricular assist devices that keep heart transplant patients alive while they await donor hearts.