Patrick Stafford, MD
Patrick Stafford, MD, assistant professor of cardiology, was featured locally, across Virginia and on TV stations nationally discussing a heart screening test for women.
UVA Health is the first health system in Virginia to adopt a new diagnostic test designed to improve how heart disease is detected in women. The test, called coronary function testing, evaluates how well the heart’s blood vessels function, rather than focusing solely on blockages seen in traditional angiograms. Physicians say this approach provides a more comprehensive view of heart health — especially for women, whose symptoms and patterns of heart disease often differ from those of men.
“We now have a way to say, well it might not be the big coronary arteries, the epicardial coronary arteries, but it could be this microvascular network that is dysfunctional,” said Dr. Stafford.
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