When Minutes Matter

Wellington Regional Medical Center  Offers New Interventional Cardiology Procedures

Lifesaving treatments for cardiac conditions are now available in your neighborhood. The Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Wellington Regional Medical Center in Wellington, Florida now provides comprehensive interventional procedures that can help save lives in emergencies and help prevent heart damage to residents of Palm Beach County, Florida and the surrounding region.

At Wellington Regional Medical Center's Cardiology Department, a team of highly trained medical professionals uses advanced technology to diagnose and treat a variety of cardiac disorders. Diagnostic studies can provide doctors with information about heart valves, heart muscle and coronary arteries, as well as possible congenital heart abnormalities.

Noninvasive Services
The Cardiology Department at Wellington Regional Medical Center offers the following noninvasive services:

• 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.
• Holter and patient-activated event monitoring. Allows a doctor to monitor a patient's heart while the patient 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 department 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 with a stent placement.
• Angiography/Stent Placement.
• Pacemaker/ICD Placement.

To make an appointment with a cardiologist, please contact the Direct Doctors Plus physician referral line at 561-798-9880.