NON-INVASIVE TESTING

The initial evaluation will include an in depth medical history and physical exam. This information will help the doctor to tell what may have caused your heart failure, what type of heart failure you have, how severe your heart failure is, and how to treat it. These are tests that may be ordered to help with your diagnosis and treatment plan:

Electrocardiogram (ECG) - This test records electrical signals from the heart and provides information about how the heart is beating.

Non-invasive long term monitoring - You may be asked to wear a cardiac monitor on an out-patient basis. This will monitor your heart rhythms from 24 hours or up to one month.

Echocardiogram (ECHO) - This non-invasive test translates sound waves from your chest into pictures of your heart. It provides information about how the heart is pumping, how blood is flowing in the heart and blood vessels, how large the heart is, and how the valves are working.

Multigated Ventriculogram (MUGA) - In this test, a small amount of a radioactive substance is injected through an intravenous line and traced by a specially designed camera. This substance called an isotope is only very weakly radioactive and quickly leaves the body in the urine. Much like the ECHO, the MUGA shows the flow through the heart and blood vessels and enables us to see how well the heart muscle is working.

Ejection Fraction (EF) - This is a measure of the percentage of the heart's blood volume that is pumped out with each heart beat. The EF is important in heart failure evaluation. It can be measured through ECHO, MUGA, and cardiac catheterization. A normal EF is more than 50%.

Chest X-ray - This tells us the size of the heart and if there is fluid in the lungs.

Treadmill exercise test with peak V02 - This test assesses your exercise capacity and reserve and measures how much oxygen the heart can provide to your muscles while you exercise. It provides information we use to gauge the severity of the heart failure and short term prognosis (outlook).

Blood tests - These tests can evaluate the function of the kidneys and liver as well as uncover intercurrent conditions that can affect the heart.

Arrhythmia Medication - To control arrhythmias, your doctor may recommend drugs such as amiodarone (Cordarone® or Pacerone®).

Conventional treatments combine education, life style changes, medications and devices. The aims are to decrease the fluid in the body, help the heart work better, prevent rhythm disturbances, improve the circulation, improve the quality of life, and prolong life.

INVASIVE TESTING

Radiofrequency Ablation - This procedure can help to cure or control rapid heart rates from the upper or lower chambers of the heart.

Electrophysiology Study - This is an invasive procedure that uses specialized electrode catheters (soft, flexible tubes) placed in the chambers of the heart to record and examine the electrical system.

Cardiac Catheterization - This is an invasive procedure using catheters placed into the heart through a vein and/or artery. It provides pictures of the heart and arteries and measurements of the pressures in the heart.