Noninvasive Services
The noninvasive division of cardiology performs:

• Echocardiograms (transthoracic and transesophageal). This test uses sound waves to produce images of your heart that can help physicians identify most heart or valve abnormalities.
• Electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG). This painless test uses electrodes placed on your skin to record electrical activity in your heart.
• Evaluation and treatment of heart failure, including planned EECP therapies.
• Holter and patient-activated event monitoring so that doctors can monitor a patient’s heart while he or she is home.
• Nuclear scan. Uses radioactivity to help doctors evaluate functional perfusion of blood to the heart muscle and identify any abnormalities. Radioactive material is injected into the bloodstream. If a particular area of heart muscle is not receiving adequate blood flow, little or no radioactivity will get into that part of the heart, and the images will show a dark spot in that area, surrounded by bright areas that show normal activity.
• Pacemaker/ICD. Evaluation, reprogramming and resynchronization therapies with optimization.
• Stress tests. Stress testing is a reliable and widely used method of evaluating patients who are at risk of developing cardiovascular disease. While stress tests usually are performed with treadmills, stress also can be induced using medication for patients who are unable to exercise effectively.  We offer standard ECG/EKG exercise stress testing as well as nuclear and echo-guided stress tests.
• Tilt Table Testing. Used to evaluate patients who are having blackout spells.

Invasive Services
The invasive, or interventional, cardiology division performs:

• Cardiac Catheterization. A test that evaluates heart function, valve function and blood vessel disease.  Thin, flexible tubes (catheters) are threaded through an artery from the patient’s groin or arm.  A contrast dye may be injected through the catheter so that blockages can be seen on an X-ray screen. If blockages are present, an interventional cardiologist may perform catheter-based intervention to open the artery and restore blood flow into the blocked artery.
• Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD). Peripheral vascular intervention, a process similar to heart catheterization, is performed in the legs and other peripheral arteries.
• Pacemaker/ICD Placement.