Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/685809
IN JANUARY 2016, VASSAR BROTHERS MEDICAL CENTER BECAME ONE OF THE FIRST IN THE REGION TO OFFER TRANSCATHETER AORTIC VALVE REPL ACEMENT žTAVRŸ, A MINIMALLY INVASIVE PROCEDURE THAT CAN RESTORE QUALIT Y OF LIFE FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH CRITICAL AORTIC STENOSIS. DEBILITATING DISEASE Most cases of aortic stenosis develop over time as increasing calcification narrows the aortic valve and hampers the ability of blood to reach the rest of the body. Aor tic stenosis a ects approximately 2 percent of individua ls older than 65, according to the Nationa l Institutes of Hea lth. Ty pica lly asymptomatic in its early stages, the disease can cause a va riety of symptoms as it adva nces, including chest pain, pa lpitations, diz- ziness, fatigue and dišculty breathing. As functional capacity decreases, quality of life worsens, and individuals struggle to exercise a nd complete activities of daily living. "One of t he ma i n cha l lenges w it h aortic stenosis is that once symptoms appear, they progress rapidly, and sur- viva l is a lmost a lways impaired," says M. Zuba ir Ja fa r, MD, FACC, Director of Inter ventiona l Ca rdiolog y a nd the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Vassar Brothers Medica l Center. "The d isea se is a lso a ssociated w it h si g- nificant morbidity, including congestive heart failure (CHF), which may result in multiple hospita l admissions. When a va lve fails or is critica lly blocked, the only therapeutic option is surgical aortic va lve replacement [SAV R] or TAV R . Many critica l aortic stenosis patients were once considered inoperable or too high-risk for open-heart SAVR, but they now have another option in TAVR ." IDENTIFYING CANDIDATES The a forementioned sy mptoms, or a finding upon physica l exam of a heart murmur, should prompt clinicia ns to investigate for the presence of va lve Vassar Brothers Medical Center Brings a Leading-edge Structural Heart Procedure to the Mid Hudson Valley BY THOMAS CROCKER M. Zubair Jafar, MD, FACC, Director of Interventional Cardiology and the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, and Mohan Sarabu, MD, FACS, FACC, Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, place a catheter in a TAVR patient. PHOTO © M ROCK PRODUCTIONS 0 6❱❱❱❱❱ C O V E R F E A T U R E