
Suburban Cardiology offers a full list of services to take care of all your cardiac and vascular needs.
Echocardiogram (Ultrasound)
An echocardiogram, or echo for short, is a sonogram of your heart. During this test you will be asked to lie on your left side, while pictures are taken of your heart using an ultrasound transducer. You may be asked to hold your breath in order to obtain the best images possible. An echo allows us to see the overall size, structure, and function of your heart and heart valves. There are no special instructions prior to having an echo. This test will take up to 45 minutes.
Exercise/Pharmacologic Nuclear Stress Test
A nuclear stress test, called myocardial perfusion imaging is a test that looks at the blood flow to your heart muscle. This is done while you're resting and also with some form of stress, either exercise or sometimes with a medicine to simulate the effects of exercise. It is important to refrain from caffeine for 24 hours prior to the test. This test requires an IV placed in your arm and takes approximately 60-90 minutes.
Exercise Stress Test
A stress test, sometimes called a treadmill test or exercise tolerance test, helps a doctor find out how well your heart handles work. As your body works harder during the test, it requires more oxygen, so the heart must pump more blood. The test can show if the blood supply is reduced in the arteries that supply the heart. This test takes approximately 20-30 minutes.
Holter Monitor
Holter (24 to 48hr) and Event monitors (up to 30 days) are small, portable electrocardiogram devices that record your heart’s electrical activity for long periods of time while you do your normal activities. These monitors can record how fast your heart is beating, whether the rhythm of your heartbeats is steady or irregular, and the strength and timing of the electrical impulses passing through each part of your heart. Information from these recordings helps doctors diagnose an arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, and check whether treatments for the irregular heartbeat are working.
New Patient Consultation
A cardiology consultation is usually requested by your general internist, family doctor or sometimes another specialist or surgeon when he or she wishes to have a cardiac specialist (cardiologist) use his or her expertise to evaluate you. This might be one of many reasons from concern over a known or possible serious cardiac problem to a more general evaluation. Please bring all current medications with you and plan on approximately one hour for this visit.
Noninvasive Vascular Lab
The test utilizes ultrasound to examine blood vessels throughout the body that feed major organs and tissue. These tests can help to diagnose and treat many vascular conditions, including peripheral arterial disease (PAD), stroke, aneurysms, and thoracic outlet syndrome.
Stress Echo
An exercise stress echocardiogram is ordered to look for signs or symptoms of coronary artery disease. This test may also be ordered to determine the severity of certain valveular diseases or arrhythmias. An echocardiogram, or sonogram of your heart, will be completed before you exercise. This allows us to see the function of your heart at rest. We will then ask you to walk on the treadmill until you reach your target heart rate, which is based on your age. Once the treadmill is stopped, you will be asked to quickly lie down on the bed for a few more ultrasound pictures while your heart is still racing. The test will take up to an hour; however you are usually on the treadmill for 10 minutes or less.