05/27/2024
Interventional cardiology is a non-surgical approach to managing a variety of heart problems. This speciality uses tiny tubes known as catheters to diagnose and treat disorders of the heart and blood vessels. By using these tiny tubes that are inserted into your blood blood vessels, medical professionals can avoid doing open heart surgery. Nonetheless, when treating a heart attack, for example, they can produce outcomes that are potentially life-saving.
Cardiac interventions often avoid the need for open heart surgery while providing better outcomes than medication alone.
What Is Involved In Interventional Cardiology?
Within the field of cardiology, interventional cardiology focuses on treating structural heart problems using catheters. The majority of the operations are performed on the cardiovascular system, which consists of your heart, arteries, and veins. This cardiology subspecialty uses a few mm needle punctures as a minimally invasive treatment method and doesn’t require large cuts or instruments to enter the body.
What Conditions Does Interventional Cardiology Treat?
It focuses mostly on treating vascular disease, acquired structural heart disease, and coronary artery disease. It evaluates and treats coronary artery disease when a medical professional believes it is contributing to ischemic heart disease, which is the name for heart issues that constrict the arteries. This also involves a spectrum of conditions ranging from stable angina to heart attacks.
The following are the conditions treated with interventional cardiology:
Heart and vascular diseases including:
- Atrial fibrillation
- Heart failure
- Carotid artery disease
- Angina (chest pain)
- Chronic total occlusion
- Coronary artery disease
- Pulmonary embolism
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- Spontaneous coronary artery dissection
Structural heart diseases include:
- Adult congenital heart disease
- Holes in the heart, including patent foramen ovale (PFO) and atrial septal defect (ASD)
- Aortic valve regurgitation and aortic stenosis
- Mitral valve regurgitation and mitral valve stenosis
- Pulmonary valve regurgitation and pulmonary valve stenosis
- Tricuspid valve regurgitation
What Kinds Of Testing Are Necessary For Interventional Cardiology?
Which tests are needed for interventional cardiology? Making sure your blood flows through your body as it should is the main objective of interventional cardiology. Cardiology providers in this field locate and address problems that cause blood flow obstructions. They might examine your heart chambers and coronary arteries, for instance, to see how much blood is flowing through them.
Interventional cardiology tests include the following:
Exploring The Interventional Cardiology Procedures:
The interventional cardiology procedures include the following:
- Cardiac Catheterization: This test assesses the presence, size, and location of plaque deposits in the arteries, the strength of the heart muscle, and the function of the heart valves. A catheter is carefully guided towards the heart after being placed into a blood artery in the wrist or leg during a cardiac catheterization. In order to track the flow of blood through the heart's chambers and arteries, a cardiologist will inject contrast dye into the artery of the heart.
- Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI): Restoring blood flow to a coronary artery is the aim of PCI, commonly referred to as angioplasty. PCI can be a planned surgery to treat persistently insufficient blood supply to the heart, or it can be an emergency treatment for a patient who has had a heart attack. A cardiologist will select the best instrument based on the individual anatomy of the patient to repair the cardiac vessels.
- Balloon Angioplasty: The heart receives better blood flow after balloon angioplasty. The clogged artery is reached by inserting a catheter that has a balloon at the tip. The artery's walls are stretched open by inflating the balloon at the location of the obstruction.
- Atherectomy: During this surgery, stubborn obstructions in the coronary arteries are opened using a specialized pulverizing instrument. Often, atherectomy is often out in conjunction with balloon angioplasty. In many cases, a stent is then inserted into the blockage.
- Stent Implantation: After balloon angioplasty or atherectomy, a small metal coil or mesh tube called a stent can be placed in the artery. The stent is placed at the end of a catheter, inserted through a blood vessel in the wrist or leg, and guided up to the heart, where it prevents newly opened arteries from collapsing.
- Emergency and Rescue Procedures: Hypothermia/Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump: It is rare that a patient whose health is extremely bad needs to be saved using sophisticated treatments. These include hypothermia and various ventricular support devices, such as intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation (IABP).
- Patent Foramen Ovale Closure: Blood flow from the mother to the fetus is facilitated via the foramen ovale, a tiny hole in the wall that separates the right and left upper chambers of the heart throughout development. Normally, throughout infancy, this hole closes. A patent foramen ovale is the result of the foramen ovale not closing. Sometimes, it requires it to be closed off.
- Renal Denervation: It is a minimally invasive procedure that targets and damages nerves near the kidneys that can become overactive and lead to high blood pressure.
What Is The Difference Between A Cardiologist And An Interventional Cardiologist?
Interventional cardiologists are educated to provide specific catheter-based therapies for heart disease, which is the main distinction between them and regular cardiologists. Conversely, general cardiologists lack the necessary training for certain operations.
Conclusion:
There may be some anxiety associated with an impending heart or blood vascular treatment. On the other hand, an expert in interventional cardiology will be handling your care during the treatment. A diagnostic information-gathering procedure can be performed by an interventional cardiologist. By doing so, they can resolve the problem without requiring open heart surgery.
Consult the skilled cardiologists at Eternal Hospital for the finest treatment for your cardiac issues. Schedule your consultation right away.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
Q: What is the purpose of interventional cardiology?
A: Interventional cardiology is a non-surgical procedure that repairs weak or damaged vessels, restricted arteries, or other structurally compromised areas of the heart using a tiny, flexible tube called a catheter.
Q: What are the benefits of interventional cardiology?
A: For problems ranging from complicated coronary artery disease and peripheral arterial disease to heart failure, pulmonary embolism, and valvular and structural heart disease, interventional cardiology offers high-impact, safe outcomes.
Q: What are the occupational hazards of interventional cardiology?
A: Percutaneous procedures have been linked to orthopedic injuries in operators, exposure to bloodborne pathogens, and the long-term effects of fluoroscopy radiation exposure.
Q: How effective is interventional cardiology?
A: Interventional cardiology is primarily known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), where specialists use metallic stents or drug-coated balloons to manage blockages or coronary narrowings. They are highly effective in eliminating angina symptoms and enhancing the patient’s heart function. With only 1% of procedures having complications, interventional cardiology is generally quite safe.