Wearing the gown is about preventing a medical emergency. Most commonly that emergency is a heart attack.

With that in mind, we have a couple of confidence-building examples of how technology can really be a lifesaver.

We will show you the nuclear medicine stress test. At CHI St. Vincent heart clinic, it is a two-part test and it helps us determine if there's blockage in the coronary arteries. Looking more like a video game than medical technology, this is an invaluable tool for catching problems in advance especially for patients that have already been through heart operations, such as...Bypasses.

Even after surgery, coronary artery disease progresses.

Another non-invasive test uses ultrasound to look at the heart and your two ventricles looking for issues with tissues. Heart size, function..looking at the valves to make sure they are not leaking or stenotic.

This often comes with a stress test. Four pictures before the treadmill then the
same four pictures after. We don't want to see any wall motion abnormalities or
changes in the wall motion.

Every test is geared for something specific. A lot of people have underlying
disease that they don't know that they have. If we can find it and fix it before
you have the heart attack that damages the heart muscle, then you're so much
better off.

Arkansas has the highest heart attack death rate in the country according to the Centers for Disease Control. Sixty-four percent higher than the national average and the best way to bring the rate down - Wear the Gown.

Learn more
CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute
Diagnosing and Treating Heart Disease
Find a Cardiologist