Patients Services
EKG – (Electrocardiogram) A simple office procedure showing and recording the electrical activity of your heart at rest. It can show abnormal heart rhythms, enlarged heart chambers, a new heart attack, a previous heart attack and other heart conditions.
Exercise Stress Test - as you are monitored by EKG you walk on a treadmill. Based on age a Target heart rate is achieved. It allows the doctor to monitor your heart as you exercise.
Echocardiogram - while resting on an examination table ultrasound waves create an image of the heart and the pattern of blood flow through the chambers and valvular structures of the heart. It enables the doctor to diagnose the blood flow through the heart, measures heart chamber size, visualize the heart valves and evaluate for defects in the valves as well as assess the walls of the heart for structural damage caused by heart disease and myocardial infarction (heart attacks).
Stress Echocardiogram – Ultrasound pictures are taking of the resting heart, evaluating all four chambers of the heart: the left atrium, left ventricle, right atrium and right ventricle. The patient is then prepped and exercised on a treadmill. Immediately post exercise the same four images of the heart at stress are recorded and evaluated. These pictures are then compared to the resting pictures to evaluate the function of the heart.
Exercise Nuclear Stress Testing – (Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Stress Test) is an exercise stress test with nuclear perfusion imaging studies. This is a two part test in which a small amount of nuclear material (technetium) is injected through an IV site at rest. After a short period of rest images are obtained through a special camera. The patient then is exercised on a treadmill and at peak exercise a 2nd nuclear material (thallium) is injected through the same IV site. Approximately 30-60 minutes later a 2nd set of exercise pictures are taken under the same camera. The doctor then compares the two sets of pictures, evaluating for coronary artery disease most commonly blockages to your heart of assessment of damage to the heart muscle caused by blockages, heart attack and or weak heart muscle.
Cardiac Catheterization/ Coronary Angiogram - this is a diagnostic study performed in an outpatient setting in area hospitals. A cardiac catheterization begins, under sedation, by inserting a catheter through a groin artery under sterile conditions in a “Cath Lab”. A guidewire (flexible wire) is inserted, a sheath is inserted which gives the ability to insert and removed various catheters without multiple incision sites. The catheter is advanced and guided towards the heart. This is constantly being monitored by the “cath lab staff” and physician. Once the catheter is positioned inside the heart various diagnostic tests are preformed such as measuring chamber pressures, cardiac output, pressure gradients, lesions or narrowing of the arteries. Multiple views and pictures are taken throughout the procedure. At the end of the procedure a “vascular closure device” seals off the small hole left in the groin from the procedure. You are monitored by staff over the next couple of hours and then you are discharged to home.
Angioplasty and Stents – based on the cardiac catheterization/coronary angiogram results the doctor may decide to fix the narrowed arteries in the heart. This is recommended with the narrowing is significant for blood flow to the heart. Either during a cardiac catheterization on during a separate procedure. Angioplasty is when a balloon is inflated on the end of a catheter to open or widen the blocked artery. Usually immediately following this inflation a cardiac stent is deployed in the site to keep the vessel open and prevent further narrowing. This stent is permanent and remains in the artery.
