The University of Virginia Health System recently opened the Commonwealth's first adult congenital heart disease program.
The program will focus on the treatment of congenital heart defects during development and adulthood.
"The goal of this program is to provide comprehensive cardiac care for adults who were born with heart defects," said Amy Tucker, assistant professor of internal medicine and co-medical director of the Adult Congenital Heart Clinic. "When people are born with congenital heart disease, their care is provided by pediatric cardiologists, but as they transition into adulthood we use a more integrated team approach to address the evolving needs that develop as these patients age."
Roughly 500,000 adults suffer from congenital heart disease, a type of malformation in the structures of the heart or blood vessels that occurs before birth. Congenital heart defects may not produce symptoms until adulthood. Medical sources report 20,000 new cases of the disease each year.
"What we have done is to integrate the clinic with various types of expertise and from different disciplines to provide care for these adults," Tucker said.
The clinic is headed by Tucker and George B. Craddock, associate professor of clinical internal medicine and co-medical director of the Adult Congenital Heart Clinic. Their team includes pediatric and adult cardiologists, electro physiologists, heart failure cardiologists, cardio thoracic surgeons, cardiology nurses, maternal-fetal medicine physicians, geneticists and social workers.
"We decided to focus on this disease because it is one of the most common types of birth abnormalities," Tucker said. "Now that we have improved medical and surgical therapies, as well as imaging techniques, many people who would have not survived in the past are surviving -- this creates a specialized population that needs attention from doctors."
Medical experts are still unsure of the disease's origins, however research is being conducted at the University in an attempt to further understand the causes. Tucker said researchers often suspect a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
As the University clinic is the only congenital heart disease clinic in Virginia, patients are referred to the clinic from all over the Commonwealth. William Gay, a Roanoke cardiologist, said he works with the cardiologists at the University.
"We do not do surgery here at my clinic," Gay said. "So we often have to refer patients to a clinic that can handle the type of care that they need. The University of Virginia has these types of facilities so we often send patients to the University so that they can get the care they need."
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