AHN Women's Heart Center

Knowing the symptoms and risks of cardiovascular disease can make all the difference in living a long and healthy life. That's why our cardiologists work closely with each patient to support healthy heart goals.

We’re experts in heart disease in women and recognized as a national leader in cardiac care. The AHN Women’s Heart Center provides a variety of gender-specific treatments and individualized care plans tailored to each woman’s unique situation. From prevention and diagnosing to treatment and long-term care, we know what it takes to help keep hearts healthy.

Our goals

The AHN Cardiovascular Institute is your partner in women's heart care and heart disease in women. Cardiovascular disease, which includes heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, and arrhythmias, is the most common cause of death in women. Our goal is to help you understand your risk factors for heart disease while working with your unique needs.

At the AHN Women's Heart Center, we work to identify and treat heart disease risk factors right away instead of waiting for problems or symptoms to start. Using the latest technology and evidence-based treatments, we manage heart disease in women at every stage of life. And through close follow-up and long-term management, our specialists help keep your heart as healthy as possible.

Heart checks at AHN

Heart disease can be difficult to spot. That's why AHN offers preventive heart checks — so you can catch heart problems before they become emergencies.

Our specialties

The AHN Women’s Heart Center specializes in several areas related to heart disease in women, including:

Cardiac care during pregnancy and menopause

Pregnancy-related heart conditions

We team up with high-risk pregnancy physicians and your OB-GYN through our Cardio Obstetrics Clinic to help protect your heart throughout and following pregnancy for heart conditions including:

  • Preeclampsia (high blood pressure caused by pregnancy).
  • Arrhythmias (heart rhythm disorders).
  • Peripartum cardiomyopathy (heart failure that occurs toward the end of pregnancy or after childbirth).
  • Congenital heart disease.
  • Prior heart attack.

Learn more about our pregnancy and newborn services and the locations where we offer this type of care.

Menopause-related heart conditions

Our expert cardiologists help manage menopause symptoms by carefully monitoring the use of hormone replacement therapy, if recommended by your gynecologist.

We collaborate with your OB-GYN to help minimize chances of hormone-induced heart issues in women and make you as comfortable as possible during this transition. Learn more about gynecologic care at AHN.

Cardio-oncology care

Some cancer treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy focused on the chest for breast cancer, can increase a woman’s risk of arrhythmia and heart failure. We work with your oncologist to help decrease your risk of side effects from cancer treatments that may contribute to cardiotoxicity and heart damage.

For more information on how we treat heart problems relating to cancer treatments, visit the AHN Cardio-Oncology Clinic.

Coronary artery disease in women

Coronary artery disease (CAD) can present differently in women than men. Certain risk factors for CAD are also unique to women. Moreover, the testing required for diagnosis of this condition can also be different. AHN was one of the first hospital systems in the country to prove that cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is an effective technique at detecting heart disease in women. More recently, stress testing with Cardiac PET imaging, as well as specialized catheterization techniques, can identify arterial disease all the way into the smallest arteries in the heart — which can be more common in women. We also offer expertise in the diagnosis and long-term management of gender-specific conditions, such as spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), and are part of an international registry for this condition.

Women’s heart disease support services

We make appropriate referrals to other cardiovascular services such as advanced heart failure, electrophysiology, cardiothoracic, or vascular surgery as needed. We also offer additional support services, dietitians, integrative medicine programs, and cardiac rehabilitation to lower overall cardiovascular risk and for those recovering from cardiac procedures.

Should you make an appointment at the AHN Women's Heart Center?

Schedule an appointment if you've experienced any of the following:

  • Chest pain
  • Pregnancy-related cardiovascular conditions
  • Postpartum high blood pressure after giving birth
  • Family history of heart disease at a young age

Services we offer

The most common services offered at the AHN Women’s Heart Center include the following:

  • Diagnosing and managing persistent chest pain/angina symptoms in women, with additional focus on angina with normal-appearing arteries
  • Managing cardiovascular risk factors, including high cholesterol and hypertension, with attention to gender-specific needs such as contraception, pregnancy, and postmenopausal hormone therapy
  • Evaluating and monitoring women with spontaneous coronary artery dissection
  • Diagnosis and management of pregnant women, those considering pregnancy, or postpartum women with the following conditions:
    • Risk assessment for women contemplating pregnancy who have a history of cardiac disease
    • Pregnant women with previous cholesterol abnormalities
    • Women with symptoms of chest pain or heart palpitations during pregnancy
    • Pregnant women with a prior history of hypertension
    • Pregnant women with known congenital heart disease
    • Postpartum women with pregnancy-induced high blood pressure

What sets us apart

The AHN Women’s Heart Center offers elevated services that set it apart from other treatment centers:

  • We work closely with your OB-GYN for gender-specific conditions through our Cardio Obstetrics Clinic.
    • We have experts who understand how cardiovascular disease presents differently in men and women and the related risk factors with certain conditions and family planning.
  • Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) was one of the first cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) centers in southwestern Pennsylvania and also has the most significant experience with microvascular disease using cardiac PET.
  • AGH has a dedicated cardiac MRI program, with cardiologists who participated in the Women’s Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation trial. This National Institute of Health-funded clinical trial highlighted the distinctive features of chest pain assessment in women.
  • AHN is one of the few facilities nationwide to perform coronary vasoreactivity testing in the cardiac catheterization lab to diagnose coronary endothelial dysfunction, which can contribute to chest pain in women.
  • Our program uses evidence-based protocols for testing and management of women with chest pain with normal coronary arteries, also known as ischemia with normal coronary arteries (INOCA).
    • These protocols include the use of exercise stress testing, infarction assessment by cardiac MRI, coronary flow reserve assessment by cardiac PET, coronary vasoreactivity testing in the catheterization lab, and CT coronary angiography for the identification of myocardial bridge and coronary calcium score assessment for appropriate management.

Meet our women's heart disease experts

When you visit the AHN Women’s Heart Center, our experts are ready to help you achieve your health goals. Our specialists are dedicated to treating many women’s heart disease symptoms and conditions, often collaborating to develop an individualized care plan tailored to a patient’s specific needs.

Our team includes:

  • Cardiologists
  • Pharmacists
  • Dietitians
  • Cardiothoracic surgeons
  • Sleep medicine experts
  • Maternal fetal medicine specialists

AHN Women's Heart Center physicians

Our expert-trained team of physicians is dedicated to providing the best care using the latest innovations to help manage and treat heart disease in women.