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Our Services

Complete clinical and diagnostic cardiovascular services are offered at Chandler Cardiology. Additionally, the physicians are fully trained intervention specialists and are able to perform medically indicated invasive procedures. The cardiologists work closely with primary care physicians to assist them in caring for their own patients, but when conditions warrant more extensive care, the team is called in to treat patients directly. The following services are provided to manage heart and blood vessel diseases.

Nuclear stress test

A nuclear stress test measures blood flow to your heart muscle at rest and during stress. It is performed similar to a routine exercise stress test but provides images in addition to electrocardiograms. During a nuclear stress test, a radioactive substance is injected into your bloodstream. This substance mixes with your blood and travels to your heart. A special scanner — which detects the radioactive material in your heart — creates images of your heart muscle. Inadequate blood flow to any part of your heart will show up as a light spot on the images — because not as much of the radioactive substance is getting there.

Echocardiogram

An echocardiogram uses sound waves to produce images of your heart. This common test allows your doctor to see how your heart is beating and pumping blood. Your doctor can use the images from an echocardiogram to identify various abnormalities in the heart muscle and valves. Depending on what information your doctor needs, you may have one of several types of echocardiograms. Each type of echocardiogram has very few risks involved.

Carotid Ultrasound

A carotid ultrasound is done to evaluate your risk of stroke. Risk factors that might make you a candidate for a carotid ultrasound include:

Being age 55 or older
Smoking
Family history of stroke, carotid artery disease, or heart disease
Having diabetes
Having high blood pressure

Some doctors recommend a series of three tests, including the carotid ultrasound exam, to thoroughly check for cardiovascular disease. The other two tests recommended include an abdominal ultrasound to screen for potential abdominal aortic aneurysm and an ankle brachial index test to check for blocked arteries in your legs, a condition called peripheral artery disease. Talk to your doctor to see if receiving all three of these tests is right for you.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD)

Some of the tests your doctor may rely on to diagnose peripheral artery disease:

Physical exam: Your doctor may find signs of PAD during a physical examination, such as a weak or absent pulse below a narrowed area of your artery, whooshing sounds (bruits) over your arteries that can be heard with a stethoscope, evidence of poor wound healing in the area where your blood flow is restricted, and decreased blood pressure in your affected limb.

Ankle-brachial index (ABI): This is one of the most common tests used to diagnose PAD. It compares the blood pressure in your ankle with the blood pressure in your arm. To get a blood pressure reading, your doctor uses a regular blood pressure cuff and a special ultrasound device to evaluate blood pressure and flow. You may walk on a treadmill and have readings taken before and immediately after exercising to capture the severity of the narrowed arteries during walking.

Ultrasound: Special ultrasound imaging techniques, such as Doppler ultrasound or duplex scanning, can help your doctor evaluate blood flow through your blood vessels and identify blocked or narrowed arteries.

Angiography: By injecting a dye (contrast material) into your blood vessels, this test allows your doctor to view blood flow through your arteries as it happens. Your doctor is able to trace the flow of the contrast material using imaging techniques such as X-ray imaging or procedures called magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) or computerized tomography angiography (CTA). Catheter angiography is a more invasive procedure that involves guiding a catheter through an artery in your groin to the affected area and injecting the dye that way. Although invasive, this type of angiography allows for simultaneous diagnosis and treatment - finding the narrowed area of a blood vessel and then widening it with an angioplasty procedure or administering medication to improve blood flow.

Blood tests: A sample of your blood can be used to measure your cholesterol and check levels of homocysteine and C-reactive protein.

Heart Arrhythmias

Heart rhythm problems (heart arrhythmias) occur when the electrical impulses in your heart that coordinate your heartbeats don`t function properly, causing your heart to beat too fast, too slow or irregularly. Heart arrhythmias (uh-RITH-me-uhs) are common and usually harmless. Most people have occasional, irregular heartbeats that may feel like a fluttering or racing heart. However, some heart arrhythmias may cause bothersome — sometimes even life-threatening — signs and symptoms. Heart arrhythmia treatment can often control or eliminate irregular heartbeats. In addition, because troublesome heart arrhythmias are often made worse — or are even caused — by a weak or damaged heart, you may be able to reduce your arrhythmia risk by adopting a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Echocardiogram

Ankle-brachial index

The ankle-brachial index test is a quick, non-invasive way to assess your risk for peripheral artery disease, a condition in which the arteries in your legs and ankles are narrowed. People with peripheral artery disease are at a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and poor circulation. The ankle-brachial index test compares your blood pressure measured at your ankle with your blood pressure measured at your arm. A low ankle-brachial index number can indicate narrowing or blockage of the arteries in your legs, leading to circulatory problems, heart disease or stroke.

Coronary angiogram

A coronary angiogram is a procedure that uses X-ray imaging to see the inside of your heart`s blood vessels.Coronary angiograms are part of a general group of procedures known as cardiac catheterization. Catheterization refers to any procedure in which a long, thin, flexible plastic tube (catheter) is inserted into your body. Heart catheter procedures can both diagnose and treat heart and blood vessel conditions. A coronary angiogram, which can help diagnose heart conditions, is the most common type of heart catheter procedure. During a coronary angiogram, a type of dye that`s visible by X-ray machine is injected into the blood vessels of your heart. The X-ray machine rapidly takes a series of images (angiograms), offering a detailed look at the inside of your blood vessels. If necessary, your doctor can perform procedures such as angioplasty during your coronary angiogram.

Coronary artery disease

Percutaneous coronary intervention, also known as coronary angioplasty, opens narrowed coronary arteries. A catheter inserted in an artery in the groin or arm is threaded to the affected artery. A second catheter is then inserted inside the first one. When the catheter reaches the narrowed area, a balloon on its tip is inflated to reopen the artery. While the catheters are in the artery, a stent may be placed to prevent re-narrowing after an artery is widened.

Pacemaker

A pacemaker is a small device, about the size of a pocket watch, that`s placed under the skin near your heart to help control your heartbeat. People may need a pacemaker for a variety of reasons — mostly due to one of a group of conditions called arrhythmias, in which the heart`s rhythm is abnormal. Normal aging of the heart may disrupt your heart rate, making it beat too slowly. Heart muscle damage resulting from a heart attack is another common cause of disruptions of your heartbeat. Some medications can affect the heart rate as well. For some, genetic conditions cause an abnormal heart rate. Regardless of the underlying cause of an abnormal heart rate, a pacemaker may fix it. A pacemaker can often be implanted in your chest with a minor surgery. You may need to take some precautions in your daily life after your pacemaker is installed.

Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs)

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) — a pager-sized device which is implanted in your chest like a pacemaker — may reduce your risk of dying if your heart stops beating (cardiac arrest). You may need an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator if you have a dangerously fast heartbeat (ventricular tachycardia) or a chaotic heartbeat that makes it so your heart can`t supply enough blood to the rest of your body (ventricular fibrillation). Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators work by detecting and stopping dangerous, abnormal heartbeats (arrhythmias). An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator continuously monitors your heartbeat and delivers electrical shocks to restore a normal heart rhythm when necessary.

Echocardiogram

Stroke treatment: Carotid and intracranial stents

If you`ve had a stroke, or have severe atherosclerosis in the brain arteries, carotid or intracranial stents may be an option for you. By Mayo Clinic staff Atherosclerosis, a buildup of fat and other substances (called plaques), causes hardening and narrowing of the arteries throughout the body. When enough plaques build up or a blood clot develops, the artery can become blocked. Depending on where the blockage occurs, it can cause serious consequences including heart attack and stroke. When the blood supply to your brain is blocked, the blockage can cause a stroke. Strokes due to blockages of blood vessels can occur in two main areas: in the carotid artery in the neck — the carotid artery is the main artery supplying blood to the brain — or in an artery within the skull, called an intracranial artery. Stroke treatment or stroke prevention depends on where the blood vessel blockage or narrowing occurs. Stroke treatment or prevention can include treating blocked or narrowed arteries with medicine or removing the buildup of plaques with surgery (such as carotid endarterectomy). But these stroke treatment and stroke prevention options aren`t for everyone. For some, medication isn`t effective; for others, surgery is too risky because of the location of the plaques or other health issues. For atherosclerosis blocking the carotid arteries, angioplasty, a procedure to widen a blocked artery along with stenting, may be appropriate. Stents are small wire mesh coils that prop open the artery to improve blood flow. Angioplasty and stenting of carotid arteries may be an appropriate stroke treatment or stroke prevention option for some people who`ve had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA, or ministroke) but can`t undergo surgery. Stenting may also be an option for some narrowed intracranial arteries.