Health care professionals attend heart symposium

LIMA - Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in Allen County as it is in the United States but it doesn't have to be the debilitating disease it was not so long ago.

There are ways to treat heart disease, prolong life and perhaps most importantly improve the quality of a person's life who suffers from it.

That message was heard Thursday by hundreds of health care professionals from as far away as Toledo during St. Rita's Medical Center's annual Cardiovascular Symposium. Doctors and other professionals shared the most recent information on new procedures such as highly detailed imaging of the heart used as a diagnostic tool that can examine a person's heart and blood vessels without inserting a catheter into a patient through a blood vessel.

Other procedures such as ablation, which can eliminate electrical problems that cause arrhythmias, also were highlighted at the symposium.

"We hold it every year to enhance the cardiovascular knowledge of physicians, nurses and allied health care professionals," said Vicki Reindel, manager of quality for the heart center at St. Rita's.

About 280 health care professionals gathered at Veterans Memorial Civic Center for the daylong event. Most of the audience were nurses who worked in some way with heart care but this year's event saw the highest number of doctors at 20, Reindel said.

Doctors and others spoke of issues they see daily and ways to treat problems. The discussion also touched on the way heart disease affects people differently, including men and women. Men experiencing a heart attack often feel pain in the chest and arm while women report feeling tired or having nausea, Reindel said.

Doctors also are seeing a younger group of heart patients, including those as young as 20s and 30s.

"A lot of it has to do with lifestyle. Being overweight and not being treated for a while," she said.