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Southwest Cardiovascular Consultants, P.A.
Clinic/Front Desk Staff
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Diagnostic Testing |
Hospital Procedures |
We offer convenient, state of the art testing including electrocardiograms, echocardiography, nuclear cardiac imaging, and stress testing in our office. When your physician orders diagnostic testing, we are able to arrange convenient scheduling and coordinate the testing with your appointment. Additional types of diagnostic testing and routine laboratory work are also available through various resources. Call us at 713.791.9400 to schedule your appointment and/or testing.
Cardiovascular Examination
When you schedule your examination with one of our physicians, you will be scheduled to have a complete cardiovascular examination, including assessment of blood pressure, pulse rate and regularity, respiration, general body habitus, and evaluation of peripheral vascular system.
Chest X-ray
If needed, radiological testing can be obtained at the St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital outpatient testing department, located in our building.
Electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG)
12 lead electrocardiograms record the electrical activity of the heart. The electrical activity is related to the impulses that travel through the heart that determine the heart's rate and rhythm. They can be quickly done in our office to assess the heart's rhythm, rate, and functional capacity.
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Echocardiogram (Echo) and Dopplers
Echocardiography and other Doppler testing can be scheduled in our office or at St. Luke's Hospital to assess the heart's size, motion, capacity, and valve condition or other peripheral vascular conditions.
Stress Testing
Treadmill Stress Testing can be scheduled in our office to assess the heart's rhythm, rate, and ability to function, as well as blood pressure monitoring; both at rest and while under stress.
Sestamibi Stress Testing
Sestamibi stress testing helps to diagnose coronary artery disease.
Nuclear Stress Test
Nuclear stress test information brochure. (PDF) (Microsoft Publisher)  Nuclear Cardiac Imaging
In conjunction with Treadmill Stress Testing or medication-induced stress, nuclear cardiac imaging can be obtained in our office to assess the flow of blood to the muscles of the heart.
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Laboratory Testing
Depending on the requirements of your insurance policy, we have the ability to do laboratory testing using Quest, Labcorp, or St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital testing facilities. Please consult with our scheduling coordinator to choose the appropriate laboratory.
Cardiac Catheterization or Coronary Angiography
Welcome sheet for Diagnostic Center at St. Luke's (PDF)
Cardiac catheterization information
Coronary angiography information
Procedure directions for St. Luke's Hospital Cath Lab(PDF)
[PDF Help]
Peripheral Angiography
Angiography is a type of x-ray that is done to image blood vessels in various parts of the body, including the heart, brain and kidneys, so as to determine whether the vessels are diseased, narrowed, enlarged or blocked altogether. After passing a catheter through an artery leading to the body area of interest, a contrast material is injected to highlight the vessels when x-rays are taken. Catheter angiography still is widely used in patients who may undergo surgery, angioplasty, or stent placement.
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Angioplasty
Angioplasty is reconstitution or reopening of a blood vessel; may involve balloon dilation, mechanical stripping of the inside of the blood vessel, forceful injection of an elastic filamentous protein, or placement of a stent.
Coronary angioplasty information (the "balloon" procedure) Stent Placement
Stent placement is a catheter-based procedure in which a small, expandable wire mesh tube (stent) is inserted into a diseased artery, serving as a scaffold to hold it open. Our physicians were some of the first in Texas to begin human clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of medicine-coated stents to reduce the re-narrowing of arteries, medically known as restenosis.
Surgical Consultation
Cardiologists do not perform surgery in the operating room, they work closely with surgeons who do so. If surgery is necessary treatment for a patient, the cardiologist would be the physician to admit the patient and supervise the patient?s care before and after the surgery. Our physicians work closely with the finest surgeons in the world, and are happy to make referrals and consult directly with the surgeons to ensure the appropriate treatment.
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Pacemaker Implantation
Pacemaker implantation information
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Research and Cutting-Edge Technology
Our physicians, in conjunction with scientists at the Texas Heart Institute, have helped pioneer and test a number of significant new therapeutic advances. Numbered among these are transmyocardial laser revascularization (TMLR) - the use of lasers to create tiny channels in the heart muscle to increase blood flow; intracoronary radiation therapy to treat the difficult clinical problem of in-stent restenosis (blockages that develop inside stents); covered stents to treat diseased native coronary vessels, bypass grafts and even the aorta; and the very exciting drug-coated stents, which may completely revolutionize the world of coronary intervention.
The overriding goal of all these technologies is to provide the best solution for each individual patient, by the least invasive means possible, to restore optimal health and return the patient to a productive and satisfying quality of life.
Dr. Emerson Perin and physicians of the Texas Heart Institute and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct a clinical trial of stem cell therapy in March of 2004. It is believed to be one of the first clinical trials of stem cell therapy for heart failure patients in the United States, and continues this team's earlier trial as one of the first studies in the world to focus on advanced heart failure patients.
Trials of Stem Cell Therapy Receive Approval
Click here to obtain more information on Dr. Perin and his current research.
Dr. Fish's current research includes the closure of atrial septal defects and patent foramen ovales (holes in the atrial septum) with catheter devices, and dissolving of blood clots in the coronary arteries.
In addition, Dr. Fish is currently in the development phase of introducing a new catheter-implanted heart valve. The development of this valve could virtually signal the end of open-heart surgery for heart valve replacement as we know it, and in addition, could pave the way to its use for multiple applications in other parts of the human anatomy. It is currently being tested in Costa Rica, Miami, and at the Texas Heart Institute. Click here to obtain more information on Dr. Fish and his current research.
For more information on the most current research projects, you can also contact the Texas Heart Institute Research Department at 832.355.3710.
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