1. News From:
For Immediate Release February 21, 2013
Contact: Damian Becker, Manager of Media Relations
(516) 377-5370
Prevention and Rehabilitation are
Cornerstones of Cardiac Care
Oceanside, N.Y. — The results of a study conducted by Sherry L. Grace, Ph.D., of York
University, Toronto, and colleagues in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Care Continuity Through
Automatic Referral Evaluation (CRCARE) Investigators reported that one year after being
treated for coronary artery disease, 1,809 patients referred to cardiac rehabilitation had attended
82.8 percent of sessions during the year following hospitalization.
That’s good news as the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association, pointed out that cardiac rehabilitation offers a comprehensive approach to chronic
disease management by addressing risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, smoking,
unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle. It backed that statement by emphasizing that it has been
proven that, compared with usual care, cardiac rehabilitation reduces illness and death by about
one-fourth over one to two years.
Cardiovascular rehabilitation is an essential component of the interventional cardiology
services provided by South Nassau Communities Hospital’s Center for Cardiovascular Health.
After diagnosing, treating and confirming that treatments are working, the center’s cardiologists
refer patients to our Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Center (located at 440 Merrick Rd. in
Oceanside). The center provides the compassionate care, rehabilitation and counseling that
patients need to achieve the best possible recovery.
The Center provides a comprehensive, individualized program of cardiac rehabilitation
for people who have had a recent heart attack, heart surgery or have been diagnosed with stable
angina. This 12-week program includes therapeutic exercise, cardiac risk assessment, nutritional
assessment and counseling, stress reduction and education on the heart-healthy lifestyle. The
center and its multidisciplinary program have been certified by the American Association of
Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation.
Whether you have or have not been treated for coronary artery disease, it’s never too late
follow the advice of the late great Benjamin Franklin, who said, “An ounce of prevention is

2. worth a pound of cure.” Gina Day, MD, FACC, and Donna Denier, MD, FACC, certified
clinical and non-invasive cardiologists at South Nassau, strongly recommend taking the
following steps to improve your heart health:
Quit smoking.
Control cholesterol; total cholesterol should be less than 200 mg/dL.
Monitor your blood pressure, which should be below 120/80 mm/Hg.
Eat foods that are low in saturated fat, cholesterol and trans-fat (partially
hydrogenated fats).
Exercise; 30 minutes of brisk walking on most days of the week is all it takes.
Watch your weight; normal body mass index (BMI) ranges from 18.5 to 24.9
kg/m2.
Symptoms of a heart attack or heart disease include: pain or discomfort in the center of
the chest or other areas of the upper body, including the arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach;
shortness of breath; breaking out in a cold sweat; nausea and light-headedness.
In the event you, a loved one or a friend need expert, advanced, potentially life-saving
cardiac care, look no further than South Nassau’s Center for Cardiovascular Health. South
Nassau is accredited by the Intersocietal Commission for Accreditation of Echocardiography
Laboratories (ICAEL) and is a recipient of the American College of Cardiology (ACC)
Foundation’s National Cardiology Data Registry (NCDR) ACTION Registry–Get With the
Guidelines (GWTG) Gold Performance Achievement Award.
The Center for Cardiovascular Health treats patients with the combination of advanced
technologies and best clinical practices and is equipped with the latest advancements in cardiac
digital imaging systems. The Center performs a wide range of coronary and peripheral
interventional procedures, including balloon angioplasty, stenting, and thrombolytic therapy.
When providing coronary artery balloon angioplasty in an emergency, the Center completes the
procedure in an average of 62.5 minutes; which is almost 28 minutes faster than the medically
recommended benchmark of 90 minutes.
Lawrence Kanner, MD, FACC, director of electrophysiology and arrhythmia services,
and the center’s staff of electrophysiologists use advanced technologies to provide timely,
accurate diagnoses and therapies to treat the range of cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heart
rhythms) and defibrillator complications. Services include diagnostic studies, implantation and
testing of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators, and radio-frequency catheter
ablation for the treatment of potentially fatal irregular heartbeats.
The center’s clinical and non-invasive cardiologists specialize in trans-thoracic
echocardiogram (a non-invasive, highly accurate and quick assessment of the overall health of
the heart, in which a probe is placed on the chest wall of the patient to produce images of the

3. heart); transesophageal echocardiogram (which uses a specialized probe containing an ultrasound
transducer at its tip that is passed into the esophagus and is used to provide clear views of areas
of the heart that would be difficult to view transthoracically); and stress echocardiogram (which
involves exercising on a treadmill or stationary bicycle while the patient is monitored by
technology using high-frequency sound waves that produces a graphic outline of the heart's
movement, valves, and chambers).
Additional cardiac imaging services offered by the center include nuclear cardiology
(which generates images of the heart at work, during exercise, and at rest) and diagnostic
peripheral vascular ultrasound (noninvasive diagnostic technique used to evaluate the health of
blood vessels) for patients with peripheral arterial disease.
South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435
beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is
an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac,
oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In
addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and
elective angioplasty and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma
Knife® Perfexion radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the
New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the
American College of Surgeons and is recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by
the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. For more information, visit
www.southnassau.org.
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