CARDIOLOGY: NON-INVASIVE

CAUSES & SYMPTOMS OF CARDIAC DISEASE

Heart disease is a catch-all phrase for a variety of conditions that affect the heart’s structure and function. The most common type of heart disease in the United States is coronary artery disease (CAD), which affects the blood flow to the heart. Decreased blood flow can cause a heart attack.

Sometimes heart disease may be “silent” and not diagnosed until a person experiences signs or symptoms of a heart attack, heart failure, or an arrhythmia. When these events happen, symptoms may include¹

Heart attack: Chest pain or discomfort, upper back or neck pain, indigestion, heartburn, nausea or vomiting, extreme fatigue, upper body discomfort, dizziness, and shortness of breath.
Arrhythmia: Fluttering feelings in the chest (palpitations).
Heart failure: Shortness of breath, fatigue, or swelling of the feet, ankles, legs, abdomen, or neck veins.

RISK FACTORS

High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and smoking are key risk factors for heart disease. About half of Americans (47%) have at least one of these three risk factors. Several other medical conditions and lifestyle choices can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease, including:

Diabetes
Overweight and obesity
Unhealthy diet
Physical inactivity
Excessive alcohol use

ELECTROCARDIOGRAM (EKG OR ECG)

An electrocardiogram is a non-invasive test used to determine or detect:

Abnormal heart rhythm
If blocked or narrowed arteries in your heart (coronary artery disease) are causing chest pain or a heart attack
Whether you have had a previous heart attack
How well certain devices, such as a pacemaker, are working

You may need an ECG if you have any of the following signs and symptoms:

Chest pain
Dizziness, lightheadedness or confusion
Heart palpitations
Rapid pulse
Shortness of breath
Weakness, fatigue or a decline in ability to exercise

An ECG may also be recommended due to a family history or other risk factors for heart disease even if you are not experiencing any symptoms. Alternatively, if your symptoms tend to come and go, they may not be captured during a standard ECG recording. In this case your doctor may recommend remote or continuous ECG monitoring such as a holter or event monitor.

ECHOCARDIOGRAM

An echocardiogram is a painless, non-invasive test that uses ultrasound (high-frequency sound waves) from a hand-held wand placed on your chest to view pictures of the heart’s valves and chambers to allow your doctor to evaluate the pumping action of the heart. When combined with Doppler ultrasound and color Doppler, an echocardiogram may be used to evaluate blood flow across the heart’s valves.

The test is used to:

Assess the overall function of your heart
Determine the presence of many types of heart disease, such as valve disease, myocardial disease, pericardial disease, infective endocarditis, cardiac masses and congenital heart disease
Follow the progress of valve disease over time
Evaluate the effectiveness of your medical or surgical treatments

HOLTER AND EVENT MONITORS

Holter and event monitors can record how fast your heart is beating, whether the rhythm of your heartbeats is steady or irregular, and the strength and timing of the electrical impulses passing through each part of your heart. Information from these recordings helps doctors diagnose an arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, and check whether treatments for the irregular heartbeat are working. Although similar, Holter and event monitors aren’t the same. A Holter monitor records your heart’s electrical activity the entire time you’re wearing it. An event monitor only records your heart’s electrical activity at certain times while you’re wearing it. Most monitors have electrodes with sticky adhesive patches that attach to the skin on your chest. Some monitors and electrodes used for long-term recording may be implanted under your skin to make it easier for you to bathe and perform your daily activities. Your doctor will explain how to wear and use the monitor and tell you whether you need to adjust your activity during the testing period. You should avoid magnets, metal detectors, microwave ovens, electric blankets, electric toothbrushes, and electric razors while using your monitor. Usually, you will be instructed to keep electronic devices such as cell phones, MP3 players, and tablets away from the monitor. After you are finished using the monitor, you will return it to your doctor’s office or the place where you picked it up. If you were using an implantable recorder, your doctor will remove it from your chest.

EXERCISE STRESS TEST

An exercise stress test, also called a treadmill test or stress test, helps your cardiologist understand well your heart handles exertion. As your body works harder during the test, it requires more oxygen, so the heart must pump more blood. The test can show if the blood supply is reduced in the arteries that supply the heart. The patient will be connected to monitoring equipment and walk slowly in place on a treadmill. Then the speed is increased for a faster pace and the treadmill is tilted to produce the effect of going up a small hill. Heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), and how tired you feel are monitored during the test. Your cardiologist may recommend an exercise stress test to:

Diagnose coronary artery disease
Diagnose a possible heart-related cause of symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath or lightheadedness
Determine a safe level of exercise
Check the effectiveness of procedures done to improve coronary artery circulation in patients with coronary artery disease
Predict risk of dangerous heart-related conditions such as a heart attack.

NUCLEAR CARDIOLOGY

A nuclear stress test uses radioactive dye and an imaging machine to create pictures showing the blood flow to your heart. The test measures blood flow while you are at rest and are exerting yourself, showing areas with poor blood flow or damage in your heart. The test usually involves injecting radioactive dye, then taking two sets of images of your heart — one while you’re at rest and another after exertion. Such differences in the pictures helps your cardiologist determine whether there may be any major blockages in your arteries. They can also see if there has been damage to the heart muscle after a heart attack. The imaging additionally helps determine the best type of treatment you may need to correct any abnormal finding.

If your Cardiologist feels that you may not be able to tolerate an appropriate level of exercise on a treadmill, they may opt to use a pharmacological agent to mimic stress conditions to evaluate your heart. This may be used in cases of arthritis, poor conditioning, the use of certain blood pressure medications that prevent your heart rate from increasing with exercise, or the use of devices like a pacemaker of defibrillator.

DEVICE CLINIC

Our device monitoring clinic follows patients who have implanted cardiac devices, including pacemakers, defibrillators, and newer devices used for the detection of cardiac arrhythmia. Patients visit the clinic shortly after having a device implanted. After the initial visit, in person visits may be once or twice yearly. The great majority of these devices are followed from home, known as remote monitoring, using the patient’s phone or internet access. Technical information is taken from the devices in person, or monitoring from home, and relayed to our physicians. A close relationship often forms between our device patients and our staff and our cardiovascular technicians. Furthermore, our clinic acts as a source of support and education for patient regarding their devices and heart rhythm.

COUMADIN CLINIC

Our Coumadin® or anticoagulation clinic is a simple way to monitor patients taking Coumadin® or any other anticoagulant or blood-thinner. As a patient taking anticoagulants, you should be aware of the potential for side-effects that can happen if you are not properly monitored. Some side effects can be life-threatening. Participating in monitoring of your anticoagulants may decrease complications and deaths from blood-thinning medications.

ADVANCED LIPID TESTING / PREVENTATIVE CARE

Advanced lipid testing may be recommended by your healthcare provider to optimize your cholesterol treatment. Advanced lipid tests are performed because standard cholesterol tests may not completely represent cholesterol-related risk for heart attacks and strokes. Some people—especially people with diabetes, insulin resistance, or cardiovascular disease—continue to have progression of cardiovascular disease, even when their low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is at goal.

Advanced lipid tests can be useful because some people do not have a lot of LDL cholesterol, but they have a lot of LDL particles. This can occur when they have mostly small particles or, alternatively, particles that contain less cholesterol per particle. A higher number of these lipoprotein particles make it easier for them to invade the walls of the arteries and induce a series of events that can lead to plaque formation. The LDL particle number measures the actual number of LDL particles that carry LDL cholesterol per liter of plasma. In addition to the number of LDL particles, advanced lipid tests report the size of these LDL particles, which may help your provider diagnose the cause of your cholesterol abnormality.

As with cholesterol goals, advanced lipid goals are reached through a combination of healthy lifestyle and cholesterol-lowering medication.

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CARDIOLOGY: NON-INVASIVE

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