Services

The Christchurch Heart Group provides a full range of diagnostic services, as well as consultancy on the best treatment and management plans for ongoing heart conditions or recovery.
Services that we provide include:

Consultation

With a referral from your GP we can talk to you about your history and any symptoms you may be experiencing in order to begin the diagnostic process. By talking to you about the nature of your symptoms, we can determine what testing may be required for a more accurate diagnosis.

TESTING PROCEDURES

 
Treadmill Tests
Treadmill tests are used to determine what is happening to your heart when is forced to work harder. Electrodes are placed on the patient's chest, and a blood pressure monitor on the arm, and they will then jog or run on the treadmill. A treadmill test that is clearly negative for any abnormalities following a significant level of exercise indicates good cardiac function.
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TREATMENT PROCEDURES

 

Coronary Intervention and Peripheral Vascular Intervention

Using the procedure of angioplasty, narrowed arteries can be opened by the inflation of a balloon from inside the artery. In the majority of cases, coronary angioplasty will also involve the permanent insertion of a tube of fine metal mesh called a stent. Use of stents has made the angioplasty procedures safer, and, by reducing the chances that the artery will narrow again, has also made the procedures more effective. The role of angioplasty is to relieve the narrowing of arteries that may have occurred due to atherosclerosis ("hardening" of the arteries) to allow normal blood flow, and in doing so relieve angina and reduce the chances of a heart attack.

Angioplasty procedures do carry some risk of complications, and your cardiologist will discuss these with you in-depth if the treatment is being considered.

 

PFO / ASD Closure

The foramen ovale allows blood to bypass the lungs in a developing fetus, and usually closes after birth when the baby begins breathing. However, it does not completely close in about 20% of the general population, and studies have shown this may be an important factor in the cause of strokes in people under the age of 50. Although strokes in this age group are relatively uncommon, about 50% of those under the age of 50 who do suffer some form of stroke have a patent (partly open) foramen ovale (PFO).

The risk of another stroke or death for such patients is believed to be around 3.8 to 5.5% per year; performing a procedure via a catheter through a vein in the groin to close the PFO seems to reduce this risk by about half, to approximately 2% per year. Closure of a PFO through this method (which avoids open heart surgery) is therefore medically recommended in these circumstances.

Atrial septal defect (ASD) is a congenital heart defect that enables blood flow between the left and right chambers of the heart via the interatrial septum. This results in mixing of arterial and venous blood. The potential long term complications of this if left untreated can include dilatation of the right side of the heart, abnormal heart rhythms, breathlessness, and an increased risk of stroke.

ASD used to require open heart surgery to repair. In more recent times though, ASDs have been closed via a catheter inserted into a vein in the groin. This percutaneous method of ASD closure has a low complication rate, requires only a short hospital stay (typically with next day discharge),and provides very good long term results.