Cardiology Transcript
Cardiology – Munaf Shamji, MD Video
Opening screen with title “American Health Journal – AmericanHealthJournal.com”
Announcer: Heart disease is the leading killer of both men and women in the U.S. And every twenty seconds someone suffers a heart attack.
Visuals: Announcer is a male in a suit sitting at a news desk in front of a blue background. He is introduced with the title “Roger Cooper – American Health Journal” in lower-third. An inset with the title “Heart Disease” is in upper right corner of screen with clips of paramedics performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a patient and the patient on a stretcher.
Announcer (V.O.): We went to Valley Presbyterian Hospital in the San Fernando Valley and spoke with Dr. Munaf Shamji. He gave us information about what you can do to avoid heart problems.
V.O. visuals: Exterior of hospital; Shamji with a nurse in the hospital going over patient charts; Shamji walking up the main hallway of the hospital toward the camera.
Munaf Shamji, MD: In a heart attack, primarily what is happening is there is compromise of blood flow to the heart. And what happens during this time is most of us have plaquing within the arteries, tiny blockages.
Visual: Shamji, wearing a white coat over a dress shirt and tie, is being interviewed in a studio with a blue wall in the background.
Shamji (V.O.): And what happens at that instance is the plaque within the arteries rupture…
V.O. visual: Motion graphic of small amount of plaque on the inner wall of an artery that ruptures and a blood clot forms (images below)
Shamji: …and a blood clot forms on top of that little plaque, occluding blood flow through the artery. And when there is a certain amount of time that the heart does not get enough blood flow…
Shamji (V.O.): …you get a heart attack or the heart muscle is damaged.
V.O. visual: Motion graphic of heart pumping in male avatar (image below).
Shamji: Close to forty percent of all heart attacks in this country are silent where…
Shamji (V.O.): ….you don’t even have a symptom of chest pain, for example, and you can still have a heart attack. And many people are diagnosed with a heart attack not because of what they come in with but they had an EKG or a stress test or a heart scan that then told them that they had actually suffered a heart attack in the past or maybe even the remote past.
V.O. visuals: A senior male patient on a gurney holding his chest, attended to by a female nurse; close-up of a patient’s arm with a monitoring device attached; close-up of an EKG screen; close-up of a stress test being printed out.
Shamji: In the worse case scenario, someone like this patient here, he actually…
Shamji (V.O.): …had a heart attack that induced an electrical problem that could be potentially fatal if not reached within a certain amount of time. And he was shocked or defibrillated out of this electrical problem.
V.O. visuals: Shamji sitting in front of a computer in his office; motion graphic of a heart pumping
Shamji: And brought to the Cath Lab at the hospital at which time he was found to have a blocked artery. And then we can open up the artery…
Shamji (V.O.): …and improve the blood flow.
V.O. visual: Surgery team at work on a patient in the operating room.
Announcer (V.O.): We asked Dr. Shamji’s patient, Randy, about his experience.
Randy (V.O.): About three years ago I had a heart attack. They put in a stent. It was on the right coronary artery.
V.O. visual: Graphic that shows stent in a heart and closeup of stent in artery (images below).
Randy: And we went through a checkup every six months and now it’s every year. And it’s been three years. Every time he sees me it seems like he’s still so amazed that I look so good.
Visual: Randy is a middle-aged male patient being interviewed in the studio with the blue wall background; he is introduced with the title “Randy, Valley Presbyterian heart patient” in lower-third.
Announcer (V.O.): Dr. Shamji gave his best advice on heart attacks.
V.O. visual: Surgeons in operating room viewing monitors with images of a heart.
Shamji (V.O.): In order to benefit all of ourselves in our health, the things that one should look at is…
V.O. visual: Close-up of arteries in a pumping heart.
Shamji: …the risks in terms of hypertension, diabetes, smoking, family history. The next thing that you look at is symptoms. Is someone having exertional symptoms. Are they limited in their activity because of chest pain or shortness of breath?
Visuals: Text on background includes title “Risks of Heart Attack,” with “Hypertension,” “Diabetes,” and “Smoking,” and “Family History,” listed under it. Text changes to title “Symptoms of Heart Attack,” with “Exertional Symptoms” and “Limited in activity due to shortness of breath.”
Shamji (V.O.): And then many times an EKG may help…
V.O. visuals: Close-up of EKG monitor.
Shamji: …and sometimes other sorts of heart tests may help. But when you put all of these things together, sometimes you’re able to pick up heart disease before a heart attack occurs.
Shamji (V.O.): I think the most basic test that we use is an EKG or an electrocardiogram. Primarily that looks at the heart, the electricity and potentially may give you signs of someone who may have had a heart attack in the past or even If they’re having symptoms actively maybe at that moment. There are other tests that one may use.
V.O. visuals: A nurse hooks up heart equipment to a patient in an examination room to take an EKG; the EKG machine printing out the results; close up of printed test results; Shamji talking with an elderly female patient lying in bed at the hospital; patient sits up and Shamji checks her heart with a stethoscope.
Shamji: Most typically, a stress test. A stress test is primarily to look for blocked arteries, however, to look for blocked arteries that are more than seventy percent or so blocked.
Visual: The title “Dr. Shamji discusses Diagnosis of Heart Disease” appears in lower-third.
Shamji (V.O.): There is new technology on the market. One that is fairly common now. It is a sixty-four slice CT Scan. An angiogram, which is invasive, is hundred percent sensitive in detecting blocked arteries but a CT angiogram is about ninety-seven percent sensitive in detecting blocked arteries. The final test that one could use commonly is an angiogram and that is the gold standard, however, it is invasive and only to be used when absolutely necessary.
V.O. visual: Radiology technician reviews x-ray scans on a computer monitor overlooking a CT scanner; several close-up scans of a heart; close-up of a blockage in a heart; close-up of an angiogram scan on monitors; surgeons conducting an angiogram and reviewing results.
Announcer (V.O.): Why do some people get stints and others bypass surgery?
V.O. visual: Surgical team conducting a heart operation on a patient
Shamji: Primarily the decision is based on three things. One, is symptoms, second, is survival, and finally, morbidity. And when you put all those things into the mix, one then decides whether someone…
Shamji (V.O.): …could have an angioplasty for survival or improve symptoms. Similarly bypass surgery could do the same. And the way one makes a decision is simply based on the data. So primarily the data is what allows us to make those sort of decisions and who would benefit in what situation.
V.O. visuals: Close-up of a scan with a blocked artery; camera pans across equipment and surgical team at work in an operating room; Dr. Shamji with a nurse in the hospital going over patient charts.
Announcer (V.O.): Dr. Shamji has this advice on preventing heart disease.
V.O. visual: Close-up of Shamji and the nurse going over the patient charts.
Shamji: It comes down to diet and exercise. And controlling those risk factors aggressively to ensure that these plaques do not rupture and cause heart attacks.
Visual: Dr. Shamji being interviewed in the studio.
End screen in black.
