Maryland Heart Center

Heart of Collaboration

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Personalized Care

Detailed PET/CT heart images contribute to faster, safer procedures in the electrophysiology laboratory.

Similarly, Dr. Mehra's arrival at Maryland heralded a new era of personalized care and compassion on the cardiology side of the Heart Center. He has fostered a special emphasis on cardiac care for the whole person through simple measures such as a mid-afternoon quiet hour in the cardiac care unit and the use of yogic breathing exercises for heart failure patients. He has also galvanized all levels of the Heart Center to provide rapid, high quality cardiac care.

He had moved from New Orleans to Baltimore just a few months before Hurricane Katrina hit. Shortly after the devastating storm, Dr. Mehra received a call for help from one of his former heart failure patients in New Orleans. She had lost her home to the storm, and flooded hospitals in New Orleans were unable to treat her rapidly worsening heart failure. Dr. Mehra arranged for the woman to come to the University of Maryland Medical Center for treatment. The patient, who calls Dr. Mehra her lifesaver, received a heart pump soon after she arrived in Baltimore, just in time to prevent further cardiac damage.

In another case, in the fall of 2006, Dr. Mehra's prompt action prevented what could have been a life-threatening heart attack for Sandy Unitas, widow of football great Johnny Unitas. She had no history of heart disease, but came to Dr. Mehra for a routine cardiac checkup as she prepared to address an organization that promotes heart disease prevention in women. Dr. Mehra suspected she had a problem based on a potential symptom that can presage a heart attack in some women -- depression. He ordered tests that confirmed she had a large blockage in her main coronary artery. Within hours, she was in the cardiac catheterization suite where Dr. Mehra opened the blocked vessel.

"This could have been like a ticking time bomb in her heart," says Dr. Mehra. "But we got it before her heart was damaged."

Dr. Mehra is well known for his clinical and research expertise in heart failure. He is the lead author of new heart transplantation guidelines from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, published in September 2006. As chair of the expert panel that developed the guidelines, he says they represent the first truly international consensus in an effort to standardize care of patients with heart failure.

He is also a principal investigator in a multi-center study of a new blood test that predicts early organ rejection in heart transplant patients, without the traditional heart biopsy.

Please call if you would like to make an appointment or talk to someone about our services. Patients dial 1-800-492-5538 or 410-328-5842, physicians dial 410-328-6622 or 1-800-318-1019.