TAMPA, Fla. — A new team at Tampa General Hospital is taking aim at a condition that affects microvascular arteries. They’re so small, you can’t see them on scans, but problems with them could signal big health problems ahead.

The multidisciplinary team aims to detect and treat coronary microvascular dysfunction, or CMD.

“It’s the concept of having coronary heart disease,” said Dr. Samip Vasaiwala, director of the coronary interventional program at the TGH Heart and Vascular Institute and associate professor of medicine with the University of South Florida.

Vasaiwala said coronary arteries provide blood flow to the heart muscle. According to him, up to 40% of patients who come in with symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath that might signal blocked arteries have no blockages in the larger blood vessels.

“These patients have been historically told that everything’s fine. You know, this is not coming from your heart. These symptoms are not a cardiac cause,” Vasaiwala said.

Andrea Baase, 47, knows what it’s like to be left without answers. Baase said she was at work last April when symptoms started.

“It just felt like somebody had reached in under my heart, under my chest, and squeezed the bottom of my heart as hard as they could for, like, five minutes,” Baase said.

Doctors found an artery blockage and put a stent in, but Baase said her pain continued.

“So, for six months, I was sitting here thinking, ‘Am I imagining this? Is there something going on?’ It’s freaking me out,” she said.

In November, doctors at TGH tested her for CMD.

“Patients, just like they can have blockages in the major highways, can also have blockages in the off-ramps that we can’t see,” said Vasaiwala.

Those “off-ramps” he’s referring to are the microscopic arteries that branch off from the larger vessels.

Vasaiwala, along with USF assistant professor of medicine and director of the cardio obstetrics program at the TGH Heart and Vascular Institute Dr. Daniela Crousillat and Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and Certified Nurse Practitioner Meghan Schmaltz, is part of the CMD team. He said they’ll evaluate patients that come in with symptoms but don’t show signs of blockages.

“You repeat cardiac catheterization, however, done with very different technology,” said Vasaiwala. “We are looking for flow not in the big arteries, because that has already been defined to be normal, but rather the microscopic arteries that you can’t see. When you find that abnormality, then they get referred to the follow-up clinic, where they get their medical treatment.”

Vasaiwala said the team was formed thanks to inspiration from similar groups at institutions like Yale University. TGH said it’s the first such team in Tampa Bay.

“I think it makes cardiac care more open, right? Because the patients who were historically told that, ‘There’s nothing we can do to help you,’ now have the ability to find an answer,” Vasaiwala said.

The specialized test found Baase was experiencing spasms in those microscopic arteries. She was treated with medication adjustments, virtual cardiac therapy, and by managing stress. She said she’s doing well today.

“To have a diagnosis of it afterwards, it was really good mentally,” she said.

While her condition won’t go away, Baase said she’s glad to have the tools to manage it.