One of medicine’s most powerful truths is that you can’t fix what you can’t see. This is especially true when it comes to your heart, a complex, four-chambered pump that is responsible for keeping you alive.
When something goes wrong in your heart, whether it’s an irregular heartbeat or a leaky valve, providers need a crystal clear picture before they decide how best to help.
The Power of Advanced Cardiac Imaging
One key addition to the toolkit for FirstHealth’s Heart Care team is remarkable advances in cardiac imaging. The availability of high-tech heart scans can reveal every curve, chamber and problem that could be hiding in your chest.
For patients, cardiac imaging is a true game-changer. It helps make treatments safer, more precise and individually customized for each person.
And for two groundbreaking procedures – WATCHMAN and MitraClip – cardiac imaging is quite literally the hero behind the scenes. Recently, FirstHealth welcomed board certified provider Sivakumar Ardhanari, M.D., to help lead the charge and ensure that cardiac imaging can help every patient with complex heart challenges. Ardhanari works alongside providers and surgeons and said the team approach to care at FirstHealth is unique for a smaller, regional health system.
“Recent advances have taken cardiac imaging from a diagnostic tool to a strategic guide for personalized treatment and longterm care management,” Ardhanari said.
“To have all of this happening at our community hospital is truly special and demonstrates FirstHealth’s commitment to providing exceptional, state-of-the-art care.”
Ardhanari said that cardiac imaging is a “hero behind the scenes” for two groundbreaking procedures that FirstHealth offers at Reid Heart Center – WATCHMAN and MitraClip.
A WATCHMAN for Your Heart
Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is a common heart rhythm disorder that affects millions of people. If you have AFib, your heart’s upper chambers quiver instead of beating steadily. This can cause blood to pool in a small pouch of the heart called the left atrial appendage (LAA). Clots can form there and travel to the brain, causing a devastating stroke. To prevent this, many patients take blood thinners. But not everyone can tolerate them due to bleeding risks.
Enter the WATCHMAN device, a tiny, umbrella-like implant designed to permanently seal off the LAA and prevent clots from escaping. Sounds simple? Not quite. No two hearts are exactly the same. Some LAA pouches are big and wide, others are narrow or twisty. If the device is the wrong size or placed incorrectly, it might not fully seal the opening—or worse, cause complications.
How Imaging Powers WATCHMAN Precision
This is where cardiac imaging saves the day. Doctors often use a test called a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE). It’s an ultrasound probe passed gently down your esophagus to get a close-up view of the heart. Think of it like a tiny camera peeking through your chest to check out the LAA’s size and shape.
Other times, a CT scan – which creates detailed 3D images – helps doctors plan precisely where the WATCHMAN should go. These scans help ensure that when the WATCHMAN opens its “umbrella,” it fits perfectly, sealing off the area and protecting you from future strokes.
Fixing a Leaky Valve Without Open-Heart Surgery
Another procedure where cardiac imaging shines is with the MitraClip. The mitral valve is one of the heart’s key gates, letting blood flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle. When it becomes leaky – a problem called mitral regurgitation – blood rushes backward with every heartbeat. Over time, it can cause fatigue, shortness of breath and even heart failure. Traditionally, fixing a severely leaky valve required open-heart surgery. But for older adults or people with other medical issues, surgery can be too risky.
How Imaging Guides MitraClip Placement
The MitraClip offers a minimally invasive alternative. Using a catheter inserted through a vein in your groin, doctors guide the MitraClip into your heart and “clip” the faulty valve leaflets together, reducing the leak. Many patients go home the next day feeling dramatically better. But like the left atrial appendage, everyone’s mitral valves are shaped differently. TEE imaging is key in helping with several things before a MitraClip procedure. It helps surgeons know how severe the leak is, pinpoint where the leak is happening and ensure the valve’s shape is suitable for clipping.
Even more amazing, doctors now use 3D echocardiography to get a virtual reality-like view of the valve’s motion. They can rotate the image, look underneath the leaflets, and plan every move before placing the clip. It’s like Google Maps, but for your heart.
“Imaging like 3D echocardiography provides visual clarity that helps patients understand their condition, and it also helps support shared decision making and builds trust between providers and patients,” Ardhanari said.
Why Cardiac Imaging Matters for Everyone
Aside from procedures like WATCHMAN and MitraClip, Ardhanari said cardiac imaging helps patients in many other ways. It can detect blockages in arteries before a heart attack happens, identify weak spots in the heart muscle, find hidden valve problems and give surgeons guidance during complex procedures.
Tests like echocardiograms, CT scans, MRIs and nuclear scans give doctors the power to see problems early—and fix them safely.
“For patients, cardiac imaging technology means fewer complications, shorter hospital stays, less invasive treatments and a quicker return to normal life. It’s a cornerstone of modern cardiovascular medicine,” Ardhanari said.
“The evolution of these scans has created a new era of heart care, and I look forward to seeing where we can take things in the future at Reid Heart Center. If your provider recommends cardiac imaging, don’t think of it as just another test. It’s a ticket to safer, more personalized care.”
Heart Care at FirstHealth
Our core purpose is to care for people. At FirstHealth Reid Heart Center, and in our clinics throughout the region, that means each patient receives personalized care from the area’s most skilled cardiologists, surgeons, nurses, techs and support personnel.
In our state-of-the-art Reid Heart Center on the campus of FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital, patients have access to leading-edge technology, treatment options and services usually reserved for university-based centers in large cities.
