On Pace
Heart Health for Women New Lundquist Lurie Cardiovascular Institute Women’s Heart Health Clinic focuses on specialized care for women in the South Bay. Written by Laura Roe Stevens
The newly opened Lundquist Lurie Cardiovascular Institute Women's Heart Health Clinic provides up-to-date, comprehensive care for women in the South Bay.
H
eart disease is the leading cause of death for women in America— striking 1 in 5 females each year. While cardiovascular disease (CVD) was thought to predominately afflict men, we now know women are equally at risk. However, women have different risk factors than men and unique CVD symptoms that are often not taken into consideration. Understanding these differences is critical because gender inequities still exist in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. For some conditions, women may be undertreated when compared to their male counterparts. Focused, specialized care is necessary to address this disparity and the unique concerns of our female population. Committed to providing the most upto-date, comprehensive care for women in the South Bay, Torrance Memorial’s new Lundquist Lurie Cardiovascular Institute Women’s Heart Health Clinic is working to correct these gender inequalities and educate women on how to recognize female-pattern
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heart disease symptoms. The clinic provides convenient access to all of the hospital’s diagnostic and treatment resources for heart disease and is designed to help women reduce their chances of heart disease through a preventive approach, including state-of-theart screening and testing. The clinic also provides thorough cardiovascular risk assessment and preventive care, as well as management of coronary artery disease, microvascular dysfunction, vasospasm, stress cardiomyopathy (broken heart syndrome), heart failure, spontaneous coronary artery dissection, pregnancyrelated heart health and other conditions known to affect women. The clinic provides complete cardiovascular care uniquely tailored for women. “Ideally, the best way to treat cardiovascular disease is to prevent it,” says Nadia Jafar Curran, MD, a Torrance Memorial cardiologist and director of the Lundquist Lurie Cardiovascular Institute Women’s Heart Health Clinic. “By raising awareness of