Memorial Healthcare System is home to cardiologists who deliver focused care for women’s heart health concerns. Our comprehensive approach includes screenings to detect issues before you experience symptoms.

If we detect an issue, you have access to a broad range of services from specialists you can trust. Whether it’s advanced testing, preventive therapies or uncommon treatments, we’re here for you.

Women’s Heart Screenings

Screening tests help detect heart issues in earlier stages when successful treatment is more likely. If you have one or more risk factors, you may benefit from a screening by our women’s heart health specialists.

Meet our team.

Risk Factors for Heart Disease in Women

Women’s heart disease risk factors include:

• Family history of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack or stroke at a young age
• High cholesterol or high blood pressure
• Long-term tobacco use
• Obesity, especially a wide waist circumference
• Previous pregnancy-related concerns, like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, high blood pressure or preterm delivery
• Autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and lupus
• Early menopause (occurring before age 40)

Women’s Heart Screenings: What to Expect

Screenings include a variety of assessments, including:,

• Taking a detailed health history
• Physical exam
• Basic studies, like an electrocardiogram (EKG), blood tests and a urinalysis

We discuss findings in ways that are easier for you to understand and answer your questions. If there are no signs of heart disease, we may recommend annual screenings. These periodic evaluations help us detect small changes that may require treatment.

Advanced Evaluations for Women’s Heart Disease

If screening uncovers signs of a heart issue or you have multiple risk factors, we coordinate additional testing. Your care may include:

• Coronary calcium score testing: We use a special CT scan to detect calcium deposits in the walls of the coronary arteries and measure their severity. This test helps us assess your risk for developing cardiovascular disease.
• Coronary CT angiogram: This CT scan uses contrast dye to check for blockages in the coronary blood vessels.

Additional women’s heart disease assessment services are available through our nationally recognized Cardiac and Vascular Institute. Offerings include:

• Cardiac catheterization procedures that enable us to evaluate heart structures and functioning more closely 
• Electrophysiology studies to detect arrhythmias
• Heart imaging, including MRIs, CT scans and nuclear studies, that helps us pinpoint areas of concern
• Stress tests that show how well blood flows through the heart

Preventive Heart Care for Women

We treat early-stage heart disease with preventive therapies that help slow disease progression and possibly reverse symptoms. You may benefit from lifestyle changes, like a heart-healthy diet or exercising.

Treatment can also include referrals to other Memorial specialists, like endocrinologists, nutritionists, bariatric surgeons and sleep specialists. They can help address the cause of your symptoms so that preventive therapies work better.

Explore integrative heart health services for women.

Women’s Heart Screenings and Assessments: Why Choose Us?

We offer exceptional women’s heart health services in South Florida. You have access to specialties, clinics and additional opportunities that may not be widely available, including: 

• Relief from nagging chest pain: We excel in treating microvascular disease, a difficult-to-detect condition affecting tiny blood vessels. It causes chest pain that won’t quit and sometimes feels like a heart attack. Explore our chest pain and microvascular disease clinic.
• Lipid disorders prevention: We perform comprehensive testing to measure levels of cholesterol and other lipids in your blood. Catching these issues in earlier stages lowers your risk of severe cardiovascular events, like heart attack and stroke. Read more about our lipid disorders and prevention clinic.
• Support during pregnancy: Women’s heart specialists treat conditions that may occur during pregnancy, like high blood pressure and chest pain. Our cardiologists recommend gentle, effective treatments that are safe for your growing baby. Learn more about our cardio-obstetrics clinic.
• Cardiogenomics: Our team includes geneticists who check for inherited heart issues, like specific arrhythmia types and pulmonary hypertension. Get more information about genetic testing for heart conditions.
• Women’s heart disease research: Our specialists are driving innovation through research. Focus areas include microvascular disease, arrhythmias, coronary artery disease, heart failure, genomics and more. If you’d like to participate, ask your cardiologist about open clinical trials.