Utah Valley Heart Center
Cardiac Cath Lab

Utah Valley Regional Medical Center has two locations* where surgeries are performed. Heart Surgical Services are also available in the Utah Valley Heart Center in addition to the Cardiac Cath Lab, and the full spectrum of surgical procedures are offered in Utah Valley Regional Surgical Services:

• Heart Surgical Services
• Utah Valley Regional Surgical Services

* Confirm your procedure location with your physician's office.

The Utah Valley Heart Center at Utah Valley Regional is designed to meet the needs of heart patients from central and southern Utah, through a team approach of coordinated care provided by highly skilled doctors, nurses, respiratory and exercise therapists, dieticians and social workers.

Cardiac Cath Lab
Includes four procedure rooms and nine recovery beds, located adjacent to the Coronary Intensive Care Unit. Features an advanced digital imaging system that aids in the electronic transfer of images between health care facilities, providing higher resolution images than older film systems.

Diagnostic & Interventional Procedures
Heart Catheterization/Angiography
This procedure allows cardiologists to diagnose and treat heart disease. A wire is inserted into the femoral artery (groin), threaded through the arterial system and into the arteries that surround and supply blood to the heart. A contrast dye is injected and X-ray pictures are taken to diagnose the disease.

If the problem is diagnosed as blockage of one or more arteries in the heart, then several interventional techniques can be used to open these coronary arteries blocked by plaque. Plaque is a substance that builds up on the artery wall like hard water deposits in a pipe.

These techniques include:

• Balloon angioplasty: A small balloon inflates to compact plaque against the arterial wall. This procedure takes approximately one hour.
• Stent: A small metal mesh device acts as a permanent scaffold to prevent arterial collapse. This procedure may take 30-60 minutes.
• Rotablator: This device shaves off layers of plaque from the arterial wall.
• Excimer laser: A laser removes arterial plaque by burning it off.
• Brachytherapy: Beta radiation is used to treat in-stent restenosis.
• DES (Drug Eluting Stents): Stents are coated with a drug to prevent restenosis.
• Angiojet: This device extracts clots from the artery.

Electrophysiology
An electrophysiology study (EPS) is an invasive test of the electrical system of the heart. During the study, the heart is paced in various ways to study the speed and location of the flow of electricity within the heart. In many cases, the study is an electrical test drive to see if the heart has the tendency to go into potentially dangerous rhythms that require treatment.

Therapies for various rhythm disorders:
Medications, radiofrequency catheter ablation, permanent pacemaker implantation, implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), ablation of atrial fibrillation, and bi-ventricular implantable cardioverter defibrillator for treatment of heart failure.