Cardiology in Palmdale, California

Palmdale Regional Medical Center offers a comprehensive program of cardiovascular care that includes noninvasive testing, diagnostic cardiac catheterization and interventional cardiology. Once a patient is admitted by their physician into the cardiac program, the patient receives assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention and evaluation according to their individual needs.

The patient's cardiologist coordinates care with other members of the Palmdale Regional Medical Center healthcare team, including the Surgery and Emergency Departments. If a patient enters the hospital through the Emergency Department and does not have a primary care physician or a cardiologist, the patient will be assigned a physician or cardiologist to follow through with their care during their hospital stay.

Certified STEMI Treatment Center

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 arrival. There are two cardiac catheterization laboratories at Palmdale Regional Medical Center for this procedure.

Cardiovascular Laboratory

The Cardiovascular Laboratory offers a variety of inpatient and outpatient services. Speak with your doctor to set up any necessary testing you may require.

Noninvasive Procedures

• Echocardiography:
  • Transthoracic 2D echocardiograms
  • Transesophageal echocardiograms

• Vascular laboratory:
  • Venous, arterial and carotid studies
  • Nuclear ventriculograms, nuclear viability studies

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.

Services include:

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

Cardiac Arrhythmia Service

We provide a wide range of diagnostic and treatment options for patients with cardiac rhythm disturbances, including:

• 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

Atrial Fibrillation

According to the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2.7 and 6.1 million Americans have atrial fibrillation (AF). As the U.S. population increases, the number of people with atrial fibrillation is expected to increase.

AF starts as an irregular and rapid heart rhythm in the upper chambers of the heart. The rhythm change may begin slowly but becomes stronger and more constant as time goes on. AF doesn't always have symptoms. Many people don't even know they have it. Others may experience one or more of the symptoms below:

• Feeling faint
• Shortness of breath
• Extreme fatigue
• Chest pain
• Heart palpitations

Palmdale Regional Medical Center treats atrial fibrillation through a minimally invasive procedure by placing catheters in body's veins up to the heart. The catheters help reduce or eliminate the electrical irregularity of the heart by using electrodes that deliver radiofrequency energy.

Door-to-Balloon (D2B) TIME

To ensure swift emergency cardiac care, we focus on shortening the time between a patient’s arrival and artery-clearing balloon angioplasty. We consistently achieve D2B times of less than 58 minutes, far faster than the national standard of 90 minutes.