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Cardiac Electrophysiology
The experienced physicians and staff at St. Mary's offer the latest state-of-the-art techniques and procedures for treating heart rhythm irregularities.
What is Cardiac Electrophysiology?
If you've been diagnosed with a heart rhythm disorder, you may be familiar with cardiac electrophysiology. In many cases, cardiac electrophysiology is used to diagnose and treat certain heart conditions that affect the electrical activity of the heart muscle. Most often, this testing is conducting on older patients, but younger people with congenital heart conditions have been known to benefit from the therapeutic and diagnostic capabilities of this treatment.
Understanding Cardiac Electrophysiology
Taking time to understand how the heart's electrical system works is important for our patients. Heart muscle is made up of specialized cells capable of producing electrical impulses. In healthy hearts, these impulses circulate in a predictable pattern, which results in the heart muscle contracting and pumping blood. However, if you have a cardiac rhythm disorder, or arrhythmia, the electrical signals don't move throughout the heart muscle as they should. Electrophysiology studies (EPS) are performed to test the electrical activity of your heart. Using specialized catheter tubes that can transmit electrical impulses, physicians can determine where the electrical signals in your heart start and travel. This can help them locate the exact area of your heart that's the source of the problem, and help you get back to a healthy heart.
Symptoms of a heart rhythm irregularity include:
- Palpitations
- Fainting
- Heart racing
- Irregular heartbeat
Physicians at St. Mary’s treat the following diseases:
- Tachycardia
- Bradycardia
- Syncope/presyncope
- WPW syndrome (pre-excitation)
- Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT)
- Atrial fibrillation/flutter
- Ventricular tachycardia
- Long QT syndrome
- Brugada syndrome
- Congestive heart failure
Procedures include:
- Electrophysiology study
- Ablation of:
- Supraventricular tachycardia
- Atrial fibrillation/flutter
- Ventricular tachycardia
- Frequent symptomatic PVCs
- Inappropriate sinus tachycardia
- Implantation and management of:
- Permanent pacemaker
- Cardioverter-defibrillator
- CRT (Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy)
- Event loop recorder
- Extraction of pacemaker/ICD leads
- Electrical cardioversion
- Holter monitors/event monitors
St. Mary’s Electrophysiology, a department of St. Mary’s Medical Center, Highlawn Medical Building, 2828 First Ave., Suite 510, Huntington, WV 25702, (304) 399-7548. Patients can also be seen in South Charleston, Hurricane, W.Va. and Ironton, OH.