[Comprehensive and integrated.] The Center for Stroke Prevention and Neurovascular Intervention at the Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular Institute takes a multidisciplinary approach to your care with interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, cardiologists, neurologists, physician assistants, and nurses who are dedicated to the prevention of stroke, especially as it relates to structural heart and carotid artery disease. This highly experienced team has access to the latest cutting-edge technology that can be applied to help patients with all neurovascular conditions, and specializes in adult and pediatric care.
The Center's state-of-the-art, non invasive technology assists the Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular Institute's teams in determining and diagnosing abnormalities that put you at risk for stroke. To help diagnose abnormalities, the team uses a number of methods, including:
- Transcranial Doppler (TCD);
- Carotid duplex scanning;
- Transthoracic/transesophageal/intracardiac echocardiography; and
- CT and MRI of neck vessels and brain vessels.
When tests indicate that treatments are necessary, abnormalities can be treated with minimally invasive techniques, such as percutaneous patent foramen ovale (PFO) device closure or carotid artery stenting.
The Center for Stroke Prevention and Neurovascular Intervention at the Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular Institute is host to some of the leading physicians in their field who have been pioneers in interventional procedures, such as carotid stenting. Carotid stenting is an endovascular procedure, which means that it is a nonsurgical procedure in which a stent is placed in the carotid artery in your neck through a tube called a catheter. Stenting is used to reopen arteries that have become blocked by plaque, a leading cause of stroke. Newer stents, called drug-eluting stents, are coated with a medication that can also help keep blockages from occurring again.
In addition to carotid artery stenting, Drs. Ruiz, Cohen, and Garrat have unparalleled expertise dealing with structural heart abnormalities such as PFO, PFO with atrial septal aneurysm, and need for exclusion of the left atrial appendage to avoid chronic anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation. Another focus of the Neurovascular Clinic is the investigation of interventional treatments for patients with disabling migraine headaches. New research seems to indicate a high degree of correlation between patients with migraine headches, especially those with auras, and the presence of a PFO, and it appears that percutaneous closure of the PFO may be an effective therapy for migraines. Our center is involved in FDA-approved clinical trials to assess the efficacy of this mode of therapy for migraines, and we have a team of specialized headache-neurologists, neuro-radiologists, neuro-interventionalists, and structural heart disease specialists that can provide a comprehensive and thorough evaluation, using the latest technologies in cardiac and brain imaging modalities.
The coordinated services of the Center allow comprehensive assessment in a single, expertly managed, patient-friendly facility.
Before, during, and after your care, the physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, and staff are available to you 24 hours a day to answer any questions you may have about your procedure, your medications, and your follow-up care. The teams at the Center for Stroke Prevention and Neurovascular Intervention at the Lenox Hill Heart and Vascular Institute will see that your stay and your care are as comfortable and as successful as possible.
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