Dear reader:

Centra Health's emergency heart care team has been making dozens of improvements and changes to speed processes and save lives. These efforts have made Lynchburg General Hospital one of the fastest hospitals in the country to open patients' clogged arteries with angioplasty following a heart attack. The faster arteries are opened, the better the chance of saving lives and minimizing permanent damage to heart muscle.

Read about this and our other life-saving efforts in this issue of Heart Matters including:

* You can alter your risk of stroke

* Ablation therapy can cure heart arrythmias

* A simple test to see if you have life-threatening peripheral vascular disease

Please remember that we are here for you around-the-clock should you suffer a heart attack or experience some other type of heart problem.

Cordially,

Skip Meador, R.N., M.B.A., M.H.A.
Director of Cardiac Services