Cardiology

We provide complete heart care services throughout northern and central Utah, including special programs for:

• Cardio-oncology care
• Cardiopulmonary care (at Cache Valley Hospital)
• Structural heart care
• Vascular care
• Heart and vascular surgery
• Cardiac rehabilitation

We treat any and all heart and vascular conditions, including some of the more complex and difficult disorders and diseases, such as:

Arrhythmias

Arrhythmias are abnormal heart rhythms caused by specific heart cells triggering the irregular electrical impulses. You may notice your heart beating too slowly (bradycardia), too quickly (tachycardia) or irregularly (fibrillation).

Types of arrhythmia are named for the area of the heart they affect, and include:

• Atrial fibrillation (AFib)
• Atrial flutter
• Premature ventricular complexes (PVC)
• Sick sinus syndrome
• Sinus arrhythmia
• Sinus tachycardia
• Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT)
• Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome
• Ventricular fibrillation
• Ventricular tachycardia (VT)

You may be referred to a cardiovascular electrophysiologist if you experience an irregular heart rhythm. A cardiac electrophysiologist is a cardiologist specialized in the study of electrical pulses in the heart. Many arrhythmia treatments are performed in our electrophysiology (EP) labs.

There are two main types of treatments for arrhythmias: device implantation and ablation. Device implantation includes pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and other rhythm control technologies. Ablation is a procedure that guides an energy source, such as heat, to the inside of the heart using catheters. The heat is used to remove (ablate) specific heart cells that are triggering the irregular electrical impulses.

Coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease can include an artery that is narrowed, blocked or damaged. With advanced testing and surgical technology, procedures we use to treat coronary artery disease include:

• Coronary angioplasty
• Coronary artery bypass, using a heart-lung machine (on-pump procedure) or off-pump procedure
• Coronary atherectomy
• Peripheral angioplasty
• Renal angioplasty

There are advantages and disadvantages to each technique. If you have a question about why your doctor is using one technique instead of another, do not be afraid to ask.

Heart attack

The most effective and potentially lifesaving time to treat heart attacks is during the critical early stages. That's why our cardiac care teams aim to significantly shorten the time it takes to accurately diagnose and treat every patient who has chest pain or other heart attack symptoms.

Heart attack risk factors

You can be proactive and identify any risk factors you have for having a heart attack, including age, family history and ethnicity. Identifying controllable risk factors is key to maintaining a healthy heart and avoiding your heart attack.

Controllable risk factors include:

• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Obesity
• Physical inactivity
• Smoking

Early symptoms ("beginnings") of a heart attack

Many people may experience mild symptoms as early as two weeks before experiencing major symptoms of a heart attack. These early signs include:

• Aching, burning, pressure, squeezing, tightness or discomfort in the chest
• Anxiety
• Back pain
• Fatigue
• Feelings of fullness
• Jaw pain
• Nausea
• Pain that travels down one of both arms
• Shortness of breath

General symptoms of a heart attack

More common and major signs of a heart attack include:

• Chest pain often lasting several minutes that can radiate to arms, jaw or back
• Chest pressure and achiness
• Fatigue (more common in women)
• Light-headed or dizziness (more common in women)
• Possible radiating of pain to arms or jaw and occasionally a sore throat
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Weakness (more common in women)

Heart failure (congestive heart failure)

A weak, failing heart can deprive your body and vital organs of oxygen-rich blood. For this reason, we focus on managing heart failure more effectively and reducing delays in treatment. That means you can count on our specialists to help decrease or eliminate the shortness of breath, edema and fatigue commonly caused by heart failure.

Many heart conditions can be treated better when they are detected early on. That is why we diagnose heart and vascular problems using advanced technology and tools, including:

• 16-slice computed tomography (CT) fused heart scans
• 64-slice CT angiography (CTA)
• Cardiac catheterization
• Coronary angiography
• Electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG)
• Exercise stress test
• Intracardiac echocardiogram (ICE)
• Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Nuclear cardiac studies
• Nuclear medicine
• Peripheral angiography
• Pharmacologic stress test
• Renal angiography
• Segmental pressure testing, including ankle brachial index (ABI) testing
• Stress echocardiogram
• Tilt table test
• Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE)
• Transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE)

Hands-only CPR

If a teen or adult suddenly collapses and is not breathing, you could save them by knowing this heart-smart version of a popular tune.

• Call 911.
• Push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of "Stayin' Alive" — the perfect rhythm for hands-only CPR.

Continue compressions until help arrives. To avoid tiring quickly, lock your elbows and keep your arms straight and your shoulders down in a relaxed position (not up by your ears). Use your body weight, not your arms, to push. If another person is there, you can take turns if you need a rest.

Here are some great videos from the American Heart Association to help you learn hands-only CPR:

Learn Hands-Only CPR from the American Red Cross

Hands-Only CPR Instructional Video