Department of Internal Medicine: Cardiovascular Medicine

• Adult Congenital Heart Disease. Provides multidisciplinary care for adult outpatients and inpatients with congenital and heritable heart diseases.
• Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. Provides cardiac catheterization and angiography services for patients requiring diagnosis and treatments. Therapeutic services include:
  • Percutaneous atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale closure
  • coronary atherectomy
  • coronary thrombectomy
  • Inoue balloon valvuloplasty for patients with mitral stenosis
  • intracoronary stents
  • Investigational therapy for patients with coronary artery disease: includes       the use of blood vessel growth factors and localized radiation treatment
  • laser angioplasty
  • percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty
  • TandemHeart percutaneous ventricular assist device for high-risk coronary procedures and cardiogenic shock
  • Stereotaxis – magnetically guided catheter and wire manipulation for coronary interventions and electrophysiology procedures
  • therapeutic progenitor cell delivery (investigational)
• Cardiac Electrophysiology. Provides evaluation and treatment of patients with cardiac rhythm disturbances and/or symptoms possibly related to cardiac rhythm disturbances. Procedures include:
  • Electroanatomic atrial and ventricular mapping to determine cause of arrhythmias
  • Radiofrequency and cryoablation
  • ICD implantation
  • Resynchronization therapy pacemaker and defibrillator implantation
  • Pacemaker implantation
  • Stereotaxis – magnet guided ablation
  • Tilt table testing
• Cardiac Nuclear Imaging/Positron Emission Tomography. This technology diagnoses CAD, assesses myocardial viability in patients being considered for revascularization (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary bypass surgery), and assesses ventricular function.
• Cardiac MRI. Provides comprehensive quantitative assessment of cardiac structure and function, myocardial viability, myocardial infarct size, shunt quantification, severity of valvular regurgitation, pericardial disease, arrhythmia substrate, and cardiac thrombus.
• Cardiac CT
  • Highly advanced cardiac CT imaging program
  • Multi-slice CT scanner
  • CT coronary angiography for noninvasive detection of coronary artery disease
• Cardiac Prevention. Offered through Cardiovascular Health Assessment Management and Prevention Service (CHAMPS) and includes:
  • ECG monitored functional evaluation
  • Ideal body weeight
  • Lipid profile
  • Nutritional assessment
  • Physical assessment
• Cardiac Rehabilitation. Cardiovascular Health Assessment Management and Prevention Service (CHAMPS) provides:
  • Dietary counseling
  • Exercise programs
  • Prescription service
  • Lipid assessment
  • Smoking cessation
  • Enhanced External Counter Pulsation Therapy
• Cardiology Inpatient Units. Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit and the Intermediate Cardiac Care Unit offer comprehensive cardiovascular care with arrhythmia monitoring.
• Cardiology Outpatient Clinics. These clinics include daily general cardiology services plus specialized clinics:
  • Arrhythmia management clinic
  • Cardiac transplantation clinic
  • Heart failure clinic
  • Lipid clinic
  • Pacemaker/defibrillator clinic
• Cardiomyopathy Treatment Program. Provides long-term multidisciplinary care for patients with all degrees of heart failure. Therapeutic options include:
  • cardiac transplantation
  • conventional medical therapy
  • investigational medical therapy
  • implantable ventricular assist devices
  • non-pharmacologic therapies (patient education and follow-up, including outpatient telephone follow-up and management.)
  • outpatient inotropic infusion
• Chest Pain Center. Located in the Emergency Treatment Center, it promotes more efficient and thorough heart care. An observation period of eight to 12 hours helps physicians determine which patients can safely go home and which patients will require hospital admission and further cardiac testing.
• Echocardiography Laboratory. Staffed by cardiologists with expertise in cardiac ultrasound, and by cardiac sonographers, it offers flexible scheduling and services for outpatients and inpatients, including:
  • comprehensive precordial exams
  • contrast echo
  • dobutamine stress echo
  • exercise echo
  • intracardiac echo
  • intraoperative echo
  • transesophageal echo
  • three dimensional echo
• Pacemaker and Defibrillator Service. Provides comprehensive pacemaker and implantable defibrillator related services to patients and community physicians, including:
  • clinic and telephone follow-up implantation
  • implantation
  • lead extraction
  • revision
  • trouble-shooting
  • programming
• Pulmonary Hypertension Program.
  • Multidisciplinary team includes physicians, physician extenders, nurse coordinators, social workers, dieticians, exercise therapists
  • Provides non-pharmacologic therapies (patient education and comprehensive outpatient follow-up)
  • Offers conventional medical therapy
  • Provides investigational medical therapy
• Pregnancy and Heart Disease Service. Offers consultation to women with known or suspected heart disease before, during, and after pregnancy.
• Treadmill Stress-testing Laboratory. Provides stress tests to diagnose, assess, and evaluate effectiveness of anti-angina and heart failure therapy.