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Apex Cardiology, founded by Dr. Henry Lui, is at 327 Summar Drive. For an appointment, call 731-423-8200.





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Standard cardiac care no longer accepted

Dr. Henry Lui checks Lynn Worley’s blood pressure.

One clinic in the West Tennessee Physicians Alliance has decided the standard of care for preventing heart attacks and strokes is no longer good enough. Dr. Henry Lui, who founded Apex Cardiology, has incorporated advanced standards in his practice.
“Despite the usual standard of care for the treatment of artherosclerosis, a major cause of heart attacks and strokes, 30 percent of patients still have heart attacks and strokes,” said Dr. Lui. “Doctors and hospitals are doing a better job of treating people who have had heart attacks, but the number of people having heart attacks is not decreasing. We asked, ‘what can we do that’s better?’ ”

Apex Cardiology is implementing the Bale Method of heart attack prevention to better identify patients at risk and to create an individualized plan of action to prevent heart attacks and strokes. The clinic also sends patient blood samples to the Berkeley (California) HeartLab, which provides unique advanced blood testing and analysis for early detection and treatment of heart disease.

The current standard of care, using such diagnostics as a treadmill test and cholesterol testing, misses too many people who are at risk, Dr. Lui says.

Apex Cardiology now incorporate more extensive standards, along with the traditional steps, to identify at-risk patients. The increased standards include…
• A carotid ultrasound scan of the main artery in the neck looks for the presence of plaque. “By measuring the medial thickness of the carotid artery, we can determine the vascular age of the individual,” Dr. Lui says. “By doing the same test on a year-to-year basis, we can determine if the therapy we are giving is effective.”
• With adult diabetes the fastest growing disease in the country and with diabetes an underlying cause of heart disease, the clinic does a blood test that will measure pancreatic function and identify patients who are insulin resistant and on the road to becoming diabetics. Arterial damage in patients who are in a pre-diabetic condition can be stopped and even reversed, said Dr. Lui.
• One blood test, the Apo E genotype test, determines how the body metabolizes food. This allows the physician to prescribe medications that will treat the patient for the unique genotype that he is.
• Another blood test breaks down the LDL and HDL particles into important subfractions. “You shouldn’t just measure total HDL,” explained Dr. Lui. Although HDL is good cholesterol, not all HDL is effective. The more advanced lipid blood test determines the effectiveness of the patient’s HDL subparticles.

After identifying patients at risk, the clinic provides a personalized treatment and lifestyle plan designed specifically for the patient to help prevent a heart attack and reduce their risk factors. A dietician helps with individualized diet plans. The clinic also has active programs to stop smoking and lose weight.

“It’s a full court press,” Dr. Lui says. “We look at all of the parameters that have risks that we can try to modify.” Patients, he says, are listening. “We spend a lot of time working with them, and that pays off.”