Cardiology

Cardiology/Heart Disease

The cardiac program at Palmdale Regional Medical Center (PRMC) offers a comprehensive program of cardiovascular care that includes non-invasive testing, diagnostic cardiac catheterization and interventional cardiology. Patients in the cardiac program receive assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention and evaluation according to their individual needs. Cardiologists coordinate care with other members of the PRMC healthcare team, including the surgery and emergency departments.

Palmdale Regional Medical Center is STEMI certified by the American Heart Association, and is one of only 33 STEMI Receiving Centers in Los Angeles County. STEMI stands for ST-elevation myocardial infarction, the technical term for a heart attack. The goal of a STEMI Receiving Center is for a patient who suffers an acute heart attack to receive treatment in a Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory within 90 minutes after the cardiac event occurs. There are two cardiac catheterization labs at Palmdale Regional Medical Center for this procedure.

Cardiopulmonary Department

The Cardiopulmonary Department offers a variety of inpatient and outpatient services. Learn more about coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease and deep vein thrombosis:

Non-Invasive Procedures:

• Echocardiography:
• Transthoracic 2D echocardiograms
• Transesophageal echocardiograms

• Exercise testing:
• Treadmill exercise testing
• Pharmacologic (adenosine dobutamine) nuclear perfusion scans
• Exercise nuclear perfusion scans (thallium, technicium)
• Exercise echocardiograms
• Dobutamine echocardiograms
• Exercise nuclear scans

• Vascular laboratory:
• Venous, arterial and carotid studies
• Other cardiac nuclear studies: Nuclear ventriculograms (MUGA), Nuclear viability studies (thallium)

Cardiac Catheterization
In a cardiac catheterization procedure, radiological equipment is used to diagnose heart disease. Interventional tools, including balloons and stents, are fed through a catheter into the coronary arteries in an effort to reduce stenosis and improve blood flow.

Diagnostics:

• Cardiac hemodynamic measurement
• Coronary angiography
• Endomyocardial biopsy
• Interventional services:
• Balloon angioplasty
• Atherectomy
• Coronary stenting
• Intracoronary thrombolysis
• Primary angioplasty for acute heart attack patients
• Brachytherapy

Cardiac Arrhythmia Service
The Arrhythmia Service provides diagnostic and treatment options for patients with cardiac rhythm disturbances.

Diagnostics:

• Event monitor recording
• 24- to 48-hour ambulatory Holter ECG monitoring
• Signal average electrocardiograms
• Pacemaker implantation
• Non-thoracotomy placement of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator devices
• Anti-arrhythmic drug therapy