Heart of Arizona Optimal Cardiac Care shows patients that they should expect more when it comes to testing and treating their ticker.

Through her year-old Scottsdale practice, Heart of Arizona Optimal Cardiac Care, Dr. Anne-Marie Feyrer-Melk has been helping to save lives via her revolutionary model of concierge cardiac care. One of the many ways she is distinguishing her practice in the realm of heart health is by the risk-determining tests she conducts on her patients, many of which are beyond standard-of-care expectations. “We apply different principals of testing that most patients have never had done before,” Dr. Feyrer-Melk says.

Carotid Intima-Media Thickness (CIMT) Scan “This is referred to as the mammogram of cardiovascular disease because it is safe, reliable and it is an independent predictor of heart attack and stroke,” Dr. Feyrer-Melk says. Unlike an EKG or echocardiogram, a CIMT scan can determine a patient’s cardiovascular age and the thickness of their arteries. This helps in capturing patients before plaque forms or calcium builds up.

Inflammatory Markers Every three months, inflammatory markers—which can cause artery-thickening—are checked in Heart of Arizona Optimal Cardiac Care patients via their blood and urine. “I routinely measure [these markers] on patients to determine if their arteries are hot or cold, warm or cool,” she says. “[I then] apply treatments to get their arteries as cool as possible.”