 | Joseph P. Galichia, MD is the founder and Medical Director of the Galichia Medical Group, PA. He is an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of interventional cardiology. In the 70's, Dr. Galichia studied in Zurich, Switzerland with the inventors of the balloon angioplasty technique for treating heart disease. As a result of his experience, he was able to bring this historic technique back to the United States where he was one of the first physicians to perform coronary angioplasty here. A noted medical spokesman, he appears on a weekly Newstalk segment on KWCH Channel 12 and has a weekly syndicated radio talk show on KNSS 1330 AM every Saturday live from 11:00 am to noon. Dr. Galichia may be contacted by sending an e-mail to service@galichia.com |
Health & Medicine
2007-05-01 11:11:00
Is Angina Pectoris hereditary?
Angina Pectoris is a type of chest pain commonly associated with blocked coronary arteries. Angina Pectoris has been known to be the harbinger of a heart attack for more than 100 years and was described initially as a pain in the center of the chest, brought on by exercise and relieved with rest or nitroglycerin. This condition however, may be related to other heart problems such as aortic valvular disease, mitral valvular disease or sometimes congenital problems of the heart. Often, patients will have symptoms like this that are totally unrelated to the heart such as gall bladder disease or problems with the esophagus or stomach. The list of problems that mimic Angina Pectoris is extremely long.
In any event, when you have a direct relative who has a history of Angina Pectoris and in this case, most likely coronary artery disease, or blocked heart arteries, the possibility that others in the family tree will have this problem is extremely great. Furthermore, in our general population, this form of heart disease results in about 40% of all deaths in our country. The prevalence of coronary disease in the general population plus the history of having a direct relative with this problem, does increase the chances that you may also have underlying heart disease. Of course many factors come into play. The other risk factors for coronary disease, besides family history, are smoking, diabetes, being overweight, having high cholesterol, a sedentary lifestyle and hypertension. Age always is a factor as coronary artery disease becomes more prevalent as we become older. My advice would be to see your family physician and have your cholesterol checked and also depending on your age, consider doing a treadmill test. Certainly with any family history of heart disease my strongest recommendation is to do your best to eliminate the other risk factors for coronary disease as we have described above.
