MONROE — A new cardiac catheterization/vascular lab at ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital offers patients the opportunity to have their cardiac, vascular, or interventional radiology procedures done in their own community.
Opened in July, scheduled cardiac catheterization and vascular procedures are performed 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. ProMedica Monroe Regional Hospital invested nearly $2.5 million to build a new lab.
“The most common reason is to look for blocked arteries around the heart, known as coronary angiography or cardiac catheterization,” Dr. A. Vincent Songco said in a written statement. “This is done by passing a catheter through an artery, usually in the wrist or in the upper leg, up to the heart and injecting contrast down each artery. While injecting contrast, a live X-ray is obtained and we can see the arteries directly. This can be in patients who have concerning symptoms coming to the office or have an abnormal stress test. It can also be for patients who present to the hospital with unstable cardiac symptoms or with a heart attack.”
He said the procedure is also done to evaluate patients who have heart valve disease or congestive heart failure to help direct treatment.
According to Songco, cardiologists use the lab to evaluate coronary artery anatomy to rule out blockages that might require stenting or bypass surgery, to measure pressures within the heart to help with heart failure treatment and to evaluate the severity of narrowed or leaky valves.
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“We can further evaluate blockages in the arteries with a tool called intravascular ultrasound which allows us to visualize the plaque from within the artery,” he said. “We can also use a special wire that measures the flow through an artery with narrowing or blockage called RFR (resting full-cycle ratio) or FFR (fractional flow reserve).”
If this number falls below a specific cutoff, the blockage should be treated with a stent or with bypass surgery if there are many blockages.
“This is a big change from just treating blockages based on how it appears visually on angiography,” Songco said. “The biggest difference our lab has made is treating patients presenting with acute heart attacks. STEMI means an artery is completely clotted shut and there is no blood flow getting to the heart at all. It is a nationwide goal to treat STEMI patients within 90 minutes of them arriving at the hospital. The clock starts when a patient arrives in the ER and the clock stops when the completely blocked artery is opened. Before the new lab, such patients would be evaluated in our ER and then transported by ambulance or helicopter to another hospital for cardiac catheterization and PCI (stenting).”
“Our lab offers interventional radiology procedures done in their own community,” manager Amy Bow said. “With time being a significant factor in patient outcomes with heart attacks; having a facility that is capable of treating this in our community provides our patients with life-saving care sooner and can significantly decrease complications associated with prolonged ischemic events.”
Songco said since becoming accredited in 2020 to perform elective stenting procedures on patients not presenting with heart attacks, they have fixed blocked arteries with stenting in more than 700 patients from the community.
“Most importantly, I would like to recognize the dedication of our cath lab nurses and radiation technologists who keep the lab running 24/7,” he said. “Every night, weekend and holiday, there is a team of four radiation technologists/nurses that are on call and ready to come in immediately if someone comes in with a heart attack. Their quick response and work efficiency has helped us achieve an average door to balloon time of about 60 minutes. The national goal is under 90 minutes.”
More information can be found at www.promedica.org/services-and-conditions/institute/promedica-heart-institute
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: ProMedica Monroe offers advanced cardiac, vascular procedures closer to home
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