Cardiology is a field of medicine focused on understanding and treating the cardiovascular system – sometimes casually called your circulatory system
With the complexity of the heart and the cardiovascular system, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that cardiology isn’t just one area of heart management, but it is several different approaches to understanding the heart and the rest of the cardiovascular system.
Two important approaches are invasive and noninvasive cardiology.
Invasive Cardiology
Invasive cardiology gets its name as it is a procedures it uses require breaking the skin. However, most of which we would describe as minimally invasive.
Some of the common procedures performed in invasive cardiology are:
- Angioplasty
- Stenting
- Atherectomy
- Electrophysiology studies
- Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD)- This monitors the heart’s rhythm and delivers an electric current to restore a regular heartbeat.
- Pacemaker placement- Pacemaker is designed designed to keep the heart from slowing too much. It can also sense the heart’s rhythm and intervenes when necessary.
- Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)-Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) uses a device like a stent to create a wider opening in the aortic valve.
- MitraClip- MitraClip is a new device used to correct the most common heart valve disorder, mitral regurgitation, in which the mitral valve doesn’t fully close. Instead of open-heart surgery, a catheter is used to place this clip on the mitral valve, helping it close better.
- Angioplasty- This is usually referred to balloon angioplasty. A small incision allows an interventional cardiologist to insert a catheter (narrow tube) with a tiny balloon on the end into the arteries near the heart and to clear the arteries for improved blood flow.
- Atherectomy- This is when an interventional cardiologist uses a special catheter designed to remove plaque from the arteries either caught in the catheter or ground up small enough to wash away into the bloodstream safely.
- Electrophysiology study- An invasive cardiologist will use a different type of catheter with electrodes that can measure the heart’s electrical currents. This helps the cardiologist figure out where the heart might be damaged and what is causing heart arrhythmias.
- Some of these procedures maybe perfomed by an interventional cardiologist, cardiac surgeon or a cardiac electrophysiologist
Non-Invasive Cardiology
Noninvasive cardiology is cardiology that doesn’t require the cutting or piercing of your skin. Usually, this focuses on the use of procedures to diagnose heart problems, such as:
- Chest x-rays- Chest x-rays let cardiologists evaluate the health of the cardiovascular system by letting a doctor look at the heart and lungs more directly.
- Electrocardiogram (EKG / ECG)- Echocardiography uses ultrasound to visualize the heart, including the blood it is pumping.
- Echocardiography- With echocardiography, a cardiologist can look at the heart’s structures and analyze their function.
- Heart score test- A heart score test measures the amount of calcium in arterial plaque around the heart. It can help assess someone’s risk for future heart attacks and strokes.
- Exercise and stress tests- Exercise and cardiac stress tests are used to watch how the heart functions under exertion to see whether this hints at any potential problems.
- Noninvasive cardiology can also include things like wellness coaching, lifestyle modification, and similar preventive cardiology techniques.