The Heart Murmur Clinic in Paducah

Baptist Health Paducah: The Heart Murmur Clinic

Dr. Nicholas Lopez III discusses what a heart murmur is, the types of heart murmurs you may encounter, and how the heart clinic at Baptist Health Paducah helps with your recovery.

The Heart Murmur Clinic HealthTalks Transcript

Nicholas Lopez III, MD:
A heart murmur is blood going through the heart, and the heart has four different valves. Sometimes those valves cause turbulence, and that causes a sound of a murmur. There are several causes to murmurs. We can categorize it in two different types, murmurs that are coming from a leaky valve and murmurs that are coming from a narrowed valve. The term that we call this is stenosis.

Kristin Kirby, RN:
The murmur clinic will help a lot because it will help us monitor these patients closely, and it also will allow us to provide comprehensive cardiac care to these patients.

Dr. Lopez:
The murmur clinic is going to give another avenue to our community so that somebody can take advantage of the resources of a cardiologist and a cardiothoracic surgeon, so that everybody is treated appropriately. That may not be an operation. That may be closer monitoring. That may be a percutaneous valve. It may be making a decision that somebody’s not going to have an operation or a surgery. At least it gives people the opportunity to have that conversation. They know they have that resource here.

Kirby:
It’s super important for Baptist to offer this clinic to our patients. We want our patients to live healthier and live longer. We’re taking a team approach. Our cardiologists, our cardiothoracic surgeons are all working together with the patients to form the perfect treatment plan for them that fits them.