What is the size of your cath lab staff and facility?

South Carolina Heart Center is a freestanding outpatient facility, privately owned by our physician partners. We have 24 cardiologists; six are interventionalists. South Carolina Heart Center has 3 cath labs, one of which is a dual lab for both peripheral and cardiac procedures. We have 15 private and family-friendly patient rooms where pre and post procedures occur. We employ 11 full-time staff and 3 part-time staff: 2 full-time registered nurses (RNs), 2 medical assistants, 4 cardiovascular technologists (CVTs), 3 part-time RNs, a

Abstract:

Data presented at the 2006 World Congress of Cardiology questioned the safety of drug-eluting stents (DES), causing a notable shift in clinical practice patterns in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). Results from Stettler’s large-scale network meta-analysis and assessment of multiple clinical registries published in 2007 challenged those findings. The pooled registry data demonstrated that after 4 years of follow up, DES implantation did not increase the risk of mortality or myocardial infarction when compared with bare-metal stents (BMS). The

9:30 am. September 1st, a day I will never forget. It was Labor Day. It started as a very windy day with a lot of cloud cover. The sun was nowhere to be seen.

I had just started my rounds. Standing next to a patient in the ICU, I called Jason, our cath lab director. I was apprehensive, having just seen the news on television that Hurricane Gustav (Figure 1) was about to make landfall. My patient was a 41-year-old male with ongoing chest pain and ST-segment elevations in lateral leads just admitted to the ICU. After Jason answered the phone, I explained to him the need to open the cat

Utilization of laser ablation and intragraft glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors via ClearWay therapeutic infusion catheter to improve procedural safety

We describe a complex thrombotic saphenous vein graft (SVG) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) case resolved with the aid of laser atherectomy and ClearWay™ (Atrium Medical Corporation, Hudson, NH) local abciximab delivery.

ClearWay is a low-profile, rapid-exchange therapeutic infusion catheter and is indicated for localized perfusion of various diagnostic and therapeutic agents into the coronary and peripheral vasculature

LUMEN takes place February 26-28, 2009, at the Loews Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. More information is available online at www.LumenAMI.com

Cath Lab Digest talks with meeting director Sameer Mehta, MD, FACC, and LUMEN’s four co-directors, each managing a crucial topic: Emergency Medicine, Door-to-Balloon Processes, Interventional Cardiology and Cardiovascular Nursing.

Director, LUMEN:
Sameer Mehta, MD, FACC

Why have a meeting focusing solely on STEMI interventions?

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has always occupied a special plac

Managed care has heightened health care professionals’ awareness of the need to provide cost-effective care without compromising quality, a goal that is typically accomplished by providing evidence-based best practice(s). Management of the arterial access site represents a fundamental component of every procedure performed in the cath lab, and has substantial cost and patient care implications. In most laboratories, the two predominant methods to attain hemostasis following femoral artery sheath removal are 1) application of direct manual pressure, or 2) use of a mechanical closure device. T

Multi-Device Strategies Using Guide Catheters, Distal Vascular Protection Devices and Aspiration Catheters

Management of patients with extensive intracoronary thrombi remains a frontier of interventional cardiology. An initial conservative strategy with antiplatelet and antithrombin medications is often associated with partial or complete angiographic thrombus resolution over subsequent days or weeks.1,2 However, such an approach is not always possible or successful. Most interventional cardiologists are familiar with the daunting scenario of a patient with an acute inferior infarc

ABSTRACT: Resurrection Medical Center implemented an initiative to address patients presenting with an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). This facility followed their performance improvement process using evidence-based strategies in order to comply with standards set by accrediting bodies. Quality improvement staff nurses take an active role in this practice. Because of this quality initiative, there has been a positive effect on the quality of care on this specific patient population.

Quality Today

Quality initiatives are a hot topic in today’s healthcare arena. Heal

Sameer Mehta, MD, FACC, MBA, is studying ST-elevation myocardial infarction interventions in his work with short door-to-balloon time primary PCI and the Single INdividual Community Experience REgistry for Primary PCI (SINCERE) database at 5 community hospitals in Miami, Florida, now over 365 patients. A past chief of interventional cardiology and director of the cardiovascular laboratory at Cedars Medical Center in Miami, as well as former President of the American Heart Association (Miami Dade Division), Dr. Mehta is a Voluntary Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of M

This monthly column in Cath Lab Digest reviews important points of distinction in drug-eluting stents, from characteristics to techniques, to provide valuable and relevant information about this technology.

Dr. Kereiakes received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Cincinnati. He completed an internship and residency at the University of California, San Francisco, a senior residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a chief residency at the University of California, San Francisco. He then completed fellowships in adult cardiology at the Univer