Cardiology

Our cardiac services lab is equipped with the latest medical technology and available around-the-clock to meet your needs. Here, we conduct minimally invasive procedures to treat a variety of cardiac conditions, including coronary artery disease.

Some of the diagnostic and testing services we offer include:

• Cystic fibrosis (CF) screening, or "sweat test": This test measures the amount of chloride in your sweat and can help doctors diagnose CF.
• Electroencephalogram (EEG): This test measures and records the electrical activity of your brain as it responds to cardiac activity. (We also offer long-term video EEGs.)
• Outpatient Holter monitor: This is a small, noninvasive and hand-sized unit attached to electrodes placed on your skin. It is often used after a traditional electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) to check your heart rhythm throughout the day or night.
• Stress testing: This test measures the heart's ability to respond to external stress by creating a stress response with physical exercise or medicine.
• Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE): This procedure uses an alternative method to the traditional echocardiogram, involving a specialized probe with an ultrasound transducer at its tip.

Cardiac catheterization is a medical subspecialty dedicated to using minimally invasive techniques with imaging guidance. Cardiac catheterization is especially useful because it can be performed on both the heart and peripheral blood vessels and can be used for both diagnostic and treatment options.

A heart catheterization, or cath exam, is a diagnostic X-ray exam. It lets your physician evaluate your heart health, valve functionality and any coronary artery blockages.

These catheter-based procedures offer patients many advantages compared to traditional surgery, including:

• Less pain
• Less scarring
• Reduced recovery time
• Shorter hospital stay

Our emergency department offers fast, effective diagnostics and treatments for a variety of heart events, such as heart attacks and blocked arteries.

Heart attack care

The average person doesn't go to the emergency room (ER) right away when they have heart attack symptoms. However, the sooner a heart attack is treated, the less damage to the heart and the better the outcome.

So we encourage you to learn the signs of a heart attack and call 911 if you experience:

• Chest pain (angina), pressure or heaviness
• Fatigue
• Fluttering sensation in the chest
• Irregular or racing heartbeat
• Nausea
• Pain between the shoulder blades
• Pain in the left shoulder, arm or jaw
• Pain that travels down one or both arms
• Shortness of breath
• Tightness in the chest or throat

Coronary stenting and balloon angioplasty procedures

We receive and treat patients with narrowed coronary arteries using angioplasty, stenting and other catheter-based procedures.

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) refers to a variety of procedures used to treat patients with diseased arteries of the heart. PCI can treat chest pain caused by a buildup of fats, cholesterol and plaque, which can reduce blood flow. PCI can also treat a heart attack caused by a large blood clot blocking the artery.

Angioplasty

Angioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening narrowed or obstructed arteries. Artery obstruction is typically the result of atherosclerosis, which is a disease of the arteries caused by a buildup of fats, cholesterol and plaque.

During an angioplasty, an empty and collapsed balloon on a guidewire (balloon catheter) is passed into the narrowed or blocked locations. Next, the balloon catheter is inflated, forcing the expansion of the muscular wall and opening the blood vessel for improved flow. Then, the balloon is deflated and withdrawn.

Stenting

A stent (tube or structure to keep the vessel open) may or may not be inserted at the time of ballooning. If you need it, we offer two types of coronary stents:

• Drug-eluting stent (DES): a stent coated with a medicine that is slowly released
• Bare-metal stent: a stent that is not covered with medicine