interventional

Deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a blood clot that forms in a vein deep in the body. Most deep vein clots occur in the lower leg or thigh. If the vein swells, the condition is called thrombophlebitis. A deep vein thrombosis can break loose and cause a serious problem in the lung, called a pulmonary embolism.

Sitting still for a long time can make you more likely to get a DVT. Some medicines and disorders that increase your risk for blood clots can also lead to DVTs. Common symptoms are :

• Warmth and tenderness over the vein
• Pain or swelling in the part of the body affected
• Skin redness

Treatment includes medicines to ease pain and inflammation, break up clots and keep new clots from forming. Keeping the affected area raised and applying moist heat can also help. If you are taking a long car or plane trip, take a break, walk or stretch your legs and drink plenty of liquids.

Diagnostic imaging lets doctors look inside your body for clues about a medical condition. A variety of machines and techniques can create pictures of the structures and activities inside your body. The type of imaging your doctor uses depends on your symptoms and the part of your body being examined. They include:

• X-rays
• CT scans
• Nuclear medicine scans
• MRI scans
• Ultrasound

Many imaging tests are painless and easy. Some require you to stay still for a long time inside a machine. This can be uncomfortable. Certain tests involve exposure to a small amount of radiation.

For some imaging tests, doctors insert a tiny camera attached to a long, thin tube into your body. This tool is called a scope. The doctor moves it through a body passageway or opening to see inside a particular organ, such as your heart, lungs, or colon. These procedures often require anesthesia.

Heart disease is a general term that includes many types of heart problems. It's also called cardiovascular disease, which means heart and blood vessel disease.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, but there are ways to prevent and manage many types of heart disease.

There are many different types of heart disease. Some you may be born with, called congenital heart disease. Other types develop during your lifetime.

Coronary artery disease (also called coronary heart disease) is the most common type of heart disease. It happens slowly over time when a sticky substance called plaque builds up in the arteries that supply your heart muscle with blood. The plaque narrows or blocks blood flow to the heart muscle and can lead to other heart problems:

• Angina - chest pain from lack of blood flow
• Heart attacks - when part of the heart muscle dies from loss of blood flow
• Heart failure - when your heart can't pump enough blood to meet your body's needs
• Arrhythmia - a problem with the rate or rhythm of your heartbeat

Other types of heart diseases may affect your heart valves or heart muscle (cardiomyopathy).

The causes of heart disease depend on the type of disease. Some possible causes include lifestyle, genetics, infections, medicines, and other diseases.

There are many different factors that can make you more likely to develop heart disease. Some of these factors you can change, but others you cannot.

• Age. Your risk of heart disease goes up as you get older.
• Sex. Some factors may affect heart disease risk differently in women than in men.
• Family history and genetics. A family history of early heart disease raises your risk of heart disease. And research has shown that some genes are linked to a higher risk of certain heart diseases.
• Race/ethnicity. Certain groups have higher risks than others.
• Lifestyle habits. Over time, unhealthy lifestyle habits can raise your risk heart disease:
  • Eating a diet high in saturated fats, refined carbohydrates, and salt.
  • Not getting enough physical activity.
  • Drinking too much alcohol.
  • Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke.
  • Too much stress.
• Having other medical conditions can raise your risk of heart diseases. These conditions include:
  • High blood pressure.
  • High cholesterol levels.
  • Diabetes.
  • Obesity.
  • Autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
  • Chronic kidney disease.
  • Metabolic syndrome.

Your symptoms will depend on the type of heart disease you have. You may not have symptoms at first. In some cases, you may not know you have heart disease until you have a complication such as a heart attack.

To find out if you have heart disease, your health care provider will:

• Ask about your medical history, including your symptoms
• Ask about your family health history, including relatives who have had heart disease
• Do a physical exam
• Likely run heart tests and blood tests

In some cases, your provider may refer you to a cardiologist (a doctor who specializes in heart diseases) for tests, diagnosis, and care.

Treatment plans for heart disease depend on the type of heart disease you have, how serious your symptoms are, and what other health conditions you have. Possible treatments may include:

• Heart-healthy lifestyle changes
• Medicines
• Procedures or surgeries
• Cardiac rehabilitation

You may be able to lower your risk of certain heart diseases by making heart-healthy lifestyle changes and managing any other medical conditions you have.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Heart diseases are the number one killer in the U.S. They are also a major cause of disability. If you do have a heart disease, it is important to find it early, when it is easier to treat. Blood tests and heart health tests can help find heart diseases or identify problems that can lead to heart diseases. There are several different types of heart health tests. Your doctor will decide which test or tests you need, based on your symptoms (if any), risk factors, and medical history.

Cardiac catheterization is a medical procedure used to diagnose and treat some heart conditions. For the procedure, your doctor puts a catheter (a long, thin, flexible tube) into a blood vessel in your arm, groin, or neck, and threads it to your heart. The doctor can use the catheter to:

• Do a coronary angiography. This involves putting a special type of dye in the catheter, so the dye can flow through your bloodstream to your heart. Then your doctor takes x-rays of your heart. The dye allows your doctor to see your coronary arteries on the x-ray, and to check for coronary artery disease (plaque buildup in the arteries).
• Take samples of blood and heart muscle
• Do procedures such as minor heart surgery or angioplasty, if your doctor finds that you need it

A cardiac CT (computed tomography) scan is a painless imaging test that uses x-rays to take detailed pictures of your heart and its blood vessels. Computers can combine these pictures to create a three-dimensional (3D) model of the whole heart. This test can help doctors detect or evaluate:

• Coronary artery disease
• Calcium buildup in the coronary arteries
• Problems with the aorta
• Problems with heart function and valves
• Pericardial diseases

Before you have the test, you get an injection of contrast dye. The dye highlights your heart and blood vessels in the pictures. The CT scanner is a large, tunnel-like machine. You lie still on a table which slides you into the scanner, and the scanner takes the pictures for about 15 minutes.

Cardiac MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a painless imaging test that uses radio waves, magnets, and a computer to create detailed pictures of your heart. It can help your doctor figure out whether you have heart disease, and if so, how severe it is. A cardiac MRI can also help your doctor decide the best way to treat heart problems such as:

• Coronary artery disease
• Heart valve problems
• Pericarditis
• Cardiac tumors
• Damage from a heart attack

The MRI is a large, tunnel-like machine. You lie still on a table which slides you into the MRI machine. The machine makes loud noises as it takes pictures of your heart. It usually takes about 30-90 minutes. Sometimes before the test, you might get an injection of contrast dye. The dye highlights your heart and blood vessels in the pictures.

A chest x-ray creates pictures of the organs and structures inside your chest, such as your heart, lungs, and blood vessels. It can reveal signs of heart failure, as well as lung disorders and other causes of symptoms not related to heart disease.

Coronary angiography (angiogram) is a procedure that uses contrast dye and x-ray pictures to look at the insides of your arteries. It can show whether plaque is blocking your arteries and how severe the blockage is. Doctors use this procedure to diagnose heart diseases after chest pain, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), or abnormal results from other heart tests such as an EKG or a stress test.

You usually have a cardiac catheterization to get the dye into your coronary arteries. Then you have special x-rays while the dye is flowing through your coronary arteries. The dye lets your doctor study the flow of blood through your heart and blood vessels.

Echocardiography, or echo, is a painless test that uses sound waves to create moving pictures of your heart. The pictures show the size and shape of your heart. They also show how well your heart's chambers and valves are working. Doctors use an echo to diagnose many different heart problems, and to check how severe they are.

For the test, a technician applies gel to your chest. The gel helps sound waves reach your heart. The technician moves a transducer (wand-like device) around on your chest. The transducer connects to a computer. It transmits ultrasound waves into your chest, and the waves bounce (echo) back. The computer converts the echoes into pictures of your heart.

An electrocardiogram, also called an ECG or EKG, is a painless test that detects and records your heart's electrical activity. It shows how fast your heart is beating and whether its rhythm is steady or irregular.

An EKG may be part of a routine exam to screen for heart disease. Or you may get it to detect and study heart problems such as heart attacks, arrhythmia, and heart failure.

For the test, you lie still on a table and a nurse or technician attaches electrodes (patches that have sensors) to the skin on your chest, arms, and legs. Wires connect the electrodes to a machine that records your heart's electrical activity.

Stress testing looks at how your heart works during physical stress. It can help to diagnose coronary artery disease, and to check how severe it is. It can also check for other problems, including heart valve disease and heart failure.

For the test, you exercise (or are given medicine if you are unable to exercise) to make your heart work hard and beat fast. While this is happening, you get an EKG and blood pressure monitoring. Sometimes you may also have an echocardiogram, or other imaging tests such as a nuclear scan. For the nuclear scan, you get an injection of a tracer (a radioactive substance), which travels to your heart. Special cameras detect the energy from the tracer to make pictures of your heart. You have pictures taken after you exercise, and then after you rest.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

There are many reasons to have surgery. Some operations can relieve or prevent pain. Others can reduce a symptom of a problem or improve some body function. Some surgeries are done to find a problem. For example, a surgeon may do a biopsy, which involves removing a piece of tissue to examine under a microscope. Some surgeries, like heart surgery, can save your life.

Some operations that once needed large incisions (cuts in the body) can now be done using much smaller cuts. This is called laparoscopic surgery. Surgeons insert a thin tube with a camera to see, and use small tools to do the surgery.

After surgery there can be a risk of complications, including infection, too much bleeding, reaction to anesthesia, or accidental injury. There is almost always some pain with surgery.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Uterine fibroids are the most common benign tumors in women of childbearing age. Fibroids are made of muscle cells and other tissues that grow in and around the wall of the uterus, or womb. The cause of fibroids is unknown. Risk factors include being African American or being overweight.

Many women with fibroids have no symptoms. If you do have symptoms, they may include:

• Heavy or painful periods or bleeding between periods
• Feeling "full" in the lower abdomen
• Urinating often
• Pain during sex
• Lower back pain
• Reproductive problems, such as infertility, multiple miscarriages or early labor

Your health care provider may find fibroids during a gynecological exam or by using imaging tests. Treatment includes drugs that can slow or stop their growth, or surgery. If you have no symptoms, you may not even need treatment. Many women with fibroids can get pregnant naturally. For those who cannot, infertility treatments may help.

NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Varicose veins are swollen, twisted veins that you can see just under the skin. They usually occur in the legs, but also can form in other parts of the body. Hemorrhoids are a type of varicose vein.

Your veins have one-way valves that help keep blood flowing toward your heart. If the valves are weak or damaged, blood can back up and pool in your veins. This causes the veins to swell, which can lead to varicose veins.

Varicose veins are very common. You are more at risk if you are older, are female, have obesity, don't exercise, or have a family history of varicose veins. They can also be more common in pregnancy.

Doctors often diagnose varicose veins from a physical exam. Sometimes you may need additional tests.

Exercising, losing weight, elevating your legs when resting, and not crossing them when sitting can help keep varicose veins from getting worse. Wearing loose clothing and avoiding long periods of standing can also help. If varicose veins are painful or you don't like the way they look, your doctor may recommend procedures to remove them.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are defects in your vascular system. Your vascular system is your body's network of blood vessels. It includes your:

• Arteries, which carry oxygen-rich blood from your heart to your tissues and organs.
• Veins, which carry the blood and waste products back to your heart.
• Capillaries, which are tiny blood vessels that connect your small arteries to your small veins.

An AVM is an abnormal tangle of arteries and veins. They are connected to each other, with no capillaries between them. Without the capillaries, the blood flow from the arteries goes directly into the veins at a faster rate than normal. Because of this, the nearby tissue does not get all the oxygen it would normally get. This lack of oxygen can lead to tissue damage and the death of nerve cells and other cells. The fast rate of blood flow can also increase the blood pressure inside the arteries and veins. This can weaken the arteries and veins. A weakened artery or blood vessel could burst or leak blood.

AVMs are rare. The cause of AVMs is unknown. Most of the time, people are born with them. But sometimes they can appear shortly after birth or later in life.

The symptoms of AVM will depend on where the AVM is located. They can happen anywhere in the body, but they are more common in the brain or spinal cord. Most people with brain or spinal cord AVMs have few, if any, major symptoms. But if a weakened blood vessel bursts, it can spill blood into the brain (called a hemorrhage). Severe hemorrhages can cause a stroke and brain damage.

If an AVM is causing symptoms, they can include:

• Seizures
• Headache
• Pain in the area where the AVM is located
• Vision problems
• Muscle weakness
• Problems with movement and speech
• Confusion
• Dizziness
• Loss of consciousness

To find out if you have an AVM, your health care provider:

• Will ask about your symptoms and medical history.
• Will do a physical exam. This may include listening for a bruit. A bruit is whooshing sound caused by the rapid blood flow through the arteries and veins of an AVM.
• May order imaging tests, such as a CT scan, MRI, ultrasound, or cerebral angiography. For a cerebral angiography, you are injected with a special dye that helps the blood vessels in your brain show up on x-rays.

Treatments for AVMs will depend on factors such as:

• Where the AVM is located
• Its size
• Your symptoms
• Your overall health
• Your risk of bleeding

The treatment options may include:

• Monitoring for any signs that may mean you have an increased risk of hemorrhage.
• Medicines to help with the symptoms from AVMs.
• Surgery, which may be done if you have a higher-than-usual risk of bleeding. There are a few different types of surgery for AVMs. In some cases, you may have more than one type. Surgery can be risky, especially when it's done on the brain or spinal cord. So you and your provider will need to discuss the risks and benefits of doing the surgery before you make a decision.

NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

The ovaries are part of the female reproductive system. Women have two ovaries, one on each side of the uterus. Each ovary is about the size and shape of an almond.

The ovaries produce and store a woman's eggs. During ovulation, an ovary releases an egg. If that egg is fertilized by a sperm, a pregnancy can occur. Ovaries also make the female hormones estrogen and progesterone. When a woman goes through menopause, her ovaries stop making those hormones and releasing eggs.

Problems with the ovaries include:

• Ovarian cancer
• Ovarian cysts and polycystic ovary syndrome
• Primary ovarian insufficiency
• Ovarian torsion, a twisting of the ovary

Pelvic pain occurs mostly in the lower abdomen area. The pain might be steady, or it might come and go. It can be a sharp and stabbing pain in a specific spot, or a dull pain that is spread out. If the pain is severe, it might get in the way of your daily activities.

If you're a woman, you might feel pain during your period. It could also happen when you have sex. Pelvic pain can be a sign that there is a problem with one of the organs in your pelvic area, such as the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix, or vagina. If you're a man, the cause could be problem with the prostate. In men and women, it could be a symptom of infection, or a problem with the urinary tract, lower intestines, rectum, muscle, or bone. Some women have more than one cause of pelvic pain at the same time.

You might have to have lab, imaging, or other medical tests to find the cause of the pain. The treatment will depend on the cause, how bad the pain is, and how often it occurs.

NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development