Syracuse Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog
The American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association recently announced guidelines for the use of nuclear imaging to diagnose and manage heart failure.
According to Syracuse misdiagnosis lawyer Michael A. Bottar, an attorney with Bottar Law, PLLC, a Syracuse medical malpractice and catastrophic injury law firm, a failure to diagnose heart damage can lead to a wrongful death. Timely diagnosis is critical to survival.
Cardiology malpractice and New York emergency room mistakes can be avoided if doctors timely identify ventricular dysfunction and plan a course of treatment. A well-reasoned plan of care should include an attempt to determine the etiology of the heart problem. It is important for medical providers to know whether, for example, a patient is presenting with ischemic, dilated, valvular, or congenital heart failure. Each is treated differently. While a stethoscope is a very useful tool, imaging studies are essential to making the correct diagnosis.
The guidelines first recommend that a physician secure a two-dimensional echocardiogram. This study quantifies the heart’s ejection fraction, as well as valve size and function (or dysfunction). From there, more complicated studies are available, including radionuclide ventriculography, coronary arteriography, myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), and SPECT and MUGA studies.
If you or a loved one have suffered a heart attack, or you have been diagnosed with a low ejection fraction, and you would like to speak to an experienced New York medical malpractice attorney about whether your condition was preventable, contact the Bottar Law, PLLC legal team today at (833) 268-8277 or by e-mail at info@bottarleone.com.