Interventional Cardiology Services
To stay healthy, your heart needs to pump the equivalent of 4,300 gallons of blood daily through your body. When the blood flow to the heart becomes obstructed by hardened or clogged arteries, your heart can’t get the oxygen it needs to work properly.
This can cause a heart attack and heart failure.
Our UCI Health interventional cardiologists use the most advanced tests and treatments available today to restore your heart to good health and reduce the risk of a heart attack due to a blockage.
We see patients in the Cardiovascular Center at UCI Medical Center in Orange and at UCI Health Gottschalk Medical Plaza on the university campus in Irvine.
To make an appointment, call 714-456-6699.
What is interventional cardiology?
Interventional cardiology refers to the diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of the heart.
Treatments involve the use of thin, flexible tubes called catheters. They are threaded through veins in a minimally invasive procedure that can mean less pain, a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery.
Why choose us
Our board-certified specialists care for patients in our state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization lab, which has two surgical suites equipped with the latest digital imaging technology to help guide interventional procedures with precision.
These experienced cardiologists are pioneers in using the radial, or wrist, artery as their primary approach for interventional procedures rather than the femoral vein in the groin. This means that patients have even less pain and bleeding and therefore, faster recovery times.
Our interventional cardiologists are:
Conditions
Our interventional cardiologists treat conditions such as:
- Coronary artery disease
- Heart valve disease
- Peripheral vascular disease
- Small vessel disease
Diagnosis
To accurately diagnose your blockage, we are skilled in the following tests and cardiac catheterization procedures:
- Angiography
A technique to locate obstructions in blood vessels. It allows our specialists to assess the extent and severity of the blockage without major surgery.
- Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)
A test that uses high-frequency sound waves to examine the interior walls of the arteries.
- Intracardiac ultrasound (ICUS)
A test using high-frequency sound waves to examine the interior heart surface.
- Optical coherence tomography
High-resolution imaging of the blood vessels.
- Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) studies
These procedures help pinpoint the extent of narrowed or blocked arteries in cases involving several diseased blood vessels.
Treatments
For patients suffering from heart blockages and peripheral vascular disease, we perform the following procedures:
- Angioplasty
Opening clogged blood vessels with a balloon-tipped catheter. When the balloon is inflated, the obstruction is cleared. In the case of peripheral vascular disease in the legs, arms or kidneys, angioplasty and stenting are used to fix the obstruction.
- Stent placement
Stents are small metal cages that are inserted in blood vessels to keep them open. About 70 percent of coronary angioplasty procedures involve stent placement.
- Left ventricular assist device
Temporary mini pumps are inserted within the heart chamber during a heart attack to help the heart to pump blood to the brain and body.
- Atherectomy
A treatment to clear plaque from inside arteries. A catheter with a tiny rotating blade is used to scrape away buildup of cholesterol, calcium and other substances.
- Valvuloplasty
A nonsurgical procedure to widen heart valves that have become stiff and narrow.
- Closing holes in the heart
Also referred to as atrial septal defects (ASD) or patent foramen ovale (PFO). These conditions occur when the opening between the right and left atria of the heart doesn’t close after birth.
- Alcohol septal ablation
A technique to reduce thickening of the heart muscle to improve blood flow.
