Heart failure diagnosis & treatment

We know you’re more than a person diagnosed with heart failure. That’s why we’ll work with you to create an individualized treatment plan based on the stage of your illness and your specific goals.

At Aurora Health Care, we’re at the forefront of diagnosis and treatments for advanced heart failure. We offer expert diagnosis, care and all available heart failure treatments including cardiac catheterization, VADs, heart pumps and heart transplant.

Diagnosing heart failure

A heart failure diagnosis is serious. We’re here to offer the answers you and your family need to move forward with your life – and your health.

If you have symptoms of heart failure, our cardiologists can use the most advanced diagnostic tests available to evaluate your heart’s health, including:

• Blood tests: We check the function of the liver, kidneys and other organs, as well as biomarkers that can predict the severity of heart failure.
• Electrocardiogram (EKG): This test checks how fast and steadily your heart is beating.
• Imaging: Your doctor may order a chest X-ray to visualize the heart and other structures in the chest. Or we may order cardiac MRI to get a 3-D view of the heart.
• Diagnostic procedures: During cardiac catheterization, a doctor threads a catheter with a fine camera through a blood vessel to examine your heart and arteries.
• Nuclear heart scan: This checks blood flow through your heart. These tests may include a PET scan, which uses a safe dose of radioactive material.
• Testing with sound waves: Heart ultrasound, such as echocardiography, Doppler ultrasound or stress echo used with a stress test, helps create a moving image of the heart to help your doctor better understand the structure, function and condition of your heart valves.
• Stress test: Sometimes we’ll test you while you exercise so we can see how your heart functions when it’s working hard. If you’re unable to exercise, we can do the test with medication instead.

Treating heart failure

Once we confirm a heart failure diagnosis, we’ll work with you to develop a heart failure treatment plan tailored to your needs. The treatment plan may include:

• Lifestyle changes: Healthy habits can improve your health or prevent heart failure from worsening. These changes include:

• Losing weight
• Exercising
• Quitting smoking
• Eating a heart-healthy diet

• Medications: Your cardiologist will work with you to optimize medications designed to treat and improve your heart condition and symptoms.
• Oxygen: For some people, using oxygen at home or from a portable tank can help ease heart failure symptoms.

If more conventional treatments don’t improve your condition, we may consider advanced treatment options. These may include:

• CardioMEMS: This specialized monitoring system sends your doctor regular reports about your heart pressure and flow. These results enable us to adjust your medication or start other therapies before heart failure worsens – potentially reducing hospitalizations and improving your quality of life.
• Cardiac resynchronization therapy: This type of pacemaker helps both sides of your heart contract at the same time.
• Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD): An ICD uses electrical pulses to keep your heartbeat regular.
• Ventricular assist device (VAD): This mechanical device can be used short-term while you’re waiting for a heart transplant or long-term if you’re not eligible or prefer not to receive a transplant.
• Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO): This lifesaving technology circulates the blood outside the body while you’re awaiting treatment such as a heart transplant. Read more about emergency heart care.
• Heart transplant: For some advanced heart failure cases, the best treatment may be heart transplant.

Learn more about heart failure treatments available at the Tendick Center for Advanced Heart Failure Therapies.

Aurora Health Care’s cardiac observation unit

Our specialized cardiac observation unit at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center provides ongoing observation and care for people who may be experiencing heart failure but aren’t having an emergency or need to be admitted to the hospital.

Our cardiac observation unit allows us to provide:

• Immediate care: We can start heart failure treatment immediately to stabilize you. This care prevents further damage to the heart and brings peace of mind to you and your family.
• 24/7 medical attention: Doctors and skilled nurses can keep an eye on you 24 hours a day. This means that even when the situation isn’t an emergency, we’ll be close at hand to care for every need.
• Observation by cardiac experts: The nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants who staff our cardiac observation unit specialize in heart failure and cardiac care. They understand your symptoms and can explain to your doctor exactly what’s going on.
• Same-day release: Whenever possible, we send people home the same day they have a procedure, so they can be comfortable in their own homes. People may stay in the cardiac observation unit for a few hours to two days, without being admitted to the hospital.