Heart failure affects an estimated 5.7 million Americans, and about 670,000 people are diagnosed with heart failure each year. It is important for people with heart failure to understand their treatment options - from medications to ventricular assist devices (VAD) and transplant. Heart failure does not mean that your heart has stopped working. It means the left ventricle (lower chamber of the heart) is not pumping with enough force or the ventricles are stiff and do not relax and fill properly.
There may not be any overt symptoms of heart failure, or the symptoms may be mild to severe. Symptoms can be constant, or can come and go. With the right care, heart failure will not stop you from doing the things you enjoy. Your prognosis, or outlook for the future, will depend on how well your heart muscle is working, your symptoms, and how well you respond to and follow your treatment plan.
Take this opportunity to learn more about heart failure, including diagnosis and treatments, and have your questions answered by Nader Moazami, MD, and Maria Mountis, DO, from the Cleveland Clinic.
About the Doctors
Nader Moazami, MD, is a staff cardiothoracic surgeon in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Surgical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Kaufman Center for Heart Failure, and Director of the Cardiac Transplantation and Ventricular Assist Device Therapy Program in the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute. His specialty is surgical treatment of heart failure, including heart transplantation and mechanical heart assist devices. He is board-certified in thoracic surgery.
Prior to his appointment to the Cleveland Clinic staff in 2012, Dr. Moazami was surgical director of Cardiac Transplantation and the Mechanical Circulatory Support Program at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, Minn. His previous positions include surgical director of Cardiac Transplantation and the Total Artificial Heart Program in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, at the Washington University School of Medicine. He was also Associate Professor of Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine from 2001 through 2010.
Dr. Moazami is a graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. He served his internship and residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, where he participated in the thoracic organ procurement team and was chief resident during his final year of training. Dr. Moazami completed a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at Cleveland Clinic in 2001 and continued his post-graduate training with multiple specialty training courses on the leading heart assist devices at institutions across the country.
Maria Mountis, DO, is staff in the Division of Cardiology, Section of Heart Failure and Transplantation at Cleveland Clinic. She also is the Medical Director of the Mechanical Circulatory Support Program. She was appointed to the Cleveland Clinic in 2008 and is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant by the American Board of Internal Medicine. She is also certified in adult echocardiography by the National Board of Echocardiography.
Dr. Mountis received her medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network in Allentown, PA. This was followed by her fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA, where she was also appointed Chief Cardiovascular Fellow. She continued her training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with a fellowship dedicated to the care of patients with Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant.
Her professional interests include diagnosis and treatment of advanced heart failure, cardiac transplantation, mechanical assist devices, pulmonary hypertension, and the cardiac care of women.