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Expert doctors close
to home. Don’t delay
your health needs.
Find expert doctors here for you right now,
ready to provide safe, in-person appointments
and video visits. Primary care and specialists,
including Weill Cornell Medicine doctors.
There are 35 doctors’ offices with same-day,
early, late and weekend hours available.
To find a doctor today, visit
nyp.org/medgroupqueens or call
718-732-1540 now.
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | NOV. 6-NOV. 12, 2020 11
��here is no disputing it:
the heart is the most important
Astoria
Sunnyside
Maspeth
Whitestone
Forest Hills Hollis
Forest Park
Fresh Meadows
Queens
Bayside
Flushing
Jackson Heights
Jamaica
H
organ in the entire
human body. Simple in its
function but powerful in its effects,
the heart pumps blood
throughout the body and sustains
all other bodily systems.
Any disruption in its function
can mean the difference between
life and death.
At the forefront of cardiac
treatment is the Heart Valve
Center at NewYork-Presbyterian
Queens, which is dedicated
to evaluating and providing
new techniques for
repairing and replacing coronary
valves. One such procedure
is Transcatheter Aortic
Valve Replacement (TAVR), a
minimally invasive procedure
to replace a narrowed aortic
valve that fails to open properly
(aortic valve stenosis).
Originally TAVR was performed
in only high surgical
risk patients. However, recent
data has shown benefit
of TAVR in nearly all groups
of patients with severe aortic
stenosis, regardless of risk or
age. In 2019, researchers found
TAVR to have significantly
lower rates of death, stroke,
or hospitalization in low- risk
patients as compared to open
heart surgery.
The Heart Valve Center:
the only facility in Queens
to offer TAVR
The interventional cardiologists
and cardiac surgeons
practicing at NewYork-Presbyterian
have been and continue
to serve as principal investigators
in landmark trials related
to TAVR therapies, including
multicenter studies for aortic
and mitral valve disease.
In fact, NYP physicians were
the principal investigators of
the national clinical trials for
TAVR.
Now, under the direction
of Dr. Robert Minutello, an interventional
cardiologist with
a long history at NewYork-
Presbyterian and Weill Cornell
Medicine, and director of
the Heart Valve Center at NYP
Queens, TAVR has been added
to the many services available
through the center. He sees the
TAVR procedure as a major
step forward in the care for patients
with aortic stenosis, one
that is now more accessible to
area residents. “We are excited
to be making this effective and
lifesaving procedure more
convenient and accessible for
patients who live in Queens,
home to more than 2 million
people.”
Aortic valve stenosis and
TAVR: a closer look
The heart has four valves—
one for each chamber of the
heart. The valves keep blood
moving through the heart in
the right direction. When the
aortic valve narrows (stenosis),
it cannot open fully, thereby
reducing and blocking blood
flow from the heart to the rest
of the body. In turn, the heart
needs to work harder to pump
blood, leading to a weakened
heart muscle and an increased
risk of heart failure.
Using TAVR, a prosthetic
valve is delivered to the heart
with a catheter guided by a
special type of x-ray. The prosthetic
valve is carefully positioned
inside the patient’s
own valve and expanded. The
diseased portion is pushed
aside and replaced with the
new valve, which will immediately
begin to function. Patients
who undergo TAVR experience
less downtime, faster
recovery and, often, a shorter
hospital stay than those undergoing
open-heart surgery.
There is no surgical wound
beyond small puncture marks
where the surgeon inserts the
catheter.
World-class cardiac
care…closer to home
Medicine has come a long
way in the treatment of the
many conditions that can affect
the heart, making for
longer, healthier lives for
many people. NYP Queens
is able to bring TAVR and
other advanced heart treatments
directly to the Queens
community making NewYork-
Presbyterian Queens the most
comprehensive heart program
in the borough.
“Innovations in cardiology
have broadened the horizons
of how we can treat patients
with valvular and structural
heart disease with minimally
invasive techniques,” says Dr.
Minutello. “The team at New-
York-Presbyterian Queens is
committed to advancing these
technologies to provide better
treatments for our patients.”
For more information about
the Heart Valve Center at New-
York-Presbyterian Queens,
please call 718-670-2485.
To see Dr. Minutello’s webinar
“TAVR Heart Valve Replacement:
Are You a Candidate?” go to
https://youtu.be/74CzNpZSqMA
/74CzNpZSqMA
/medgroupqueens
/QNS.COM
/74CzNpZSqMA
