The Heart & Vascular Center at Verde Valley Medical Center is a full-service, healthy heart program providing prevention, diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation for the Northern and Central Arizona communities. VVMC has made exciting advances in locally offered cardiology services over the past several years. The hospital's first Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, which opened in 1999, was the essential first step in developing the life-saving cardiac programs that exist today.

Diagnostic, or non-invasive, cardiology services available at the Heart Center at VVMC include:

Cardiac doppler reveals the speed and direction of blood flow within the heart. It uses sound waves which reflect off the moving red blood cells within the heart chambers.

Cardiac nuclear imaging, or perfusion scan, is a method of checking blood flow through the walls of the heart using radioactive tracer material. This usually is done along with a stress test.

Echocardiography, or a cardiac ultrasound, uses sound waves to produce images of the heart as it is beating. This enables the physician to evaluate valves, the strength and thickness of heart muscle, and the size of the chambers.

Exercise stress testing requires a patient to exercise on a treadmill while heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, electrocardiogram (ECG), and symptoms are monitored.

Pharmacological stress testing is performed with medications instead of exercise if the patient's condition does not allow for sufficient physical activity.

Invasive and interventional cardiology services include:

Cardiac catheterization is a diagnostic procedure that gives cardiologists a clear picture of the coronary arteries and heart function. A catheter is inserted into an artery and guided to the coronary arteries. Real-time X-rays are taken of the heart arteries, showing narrowing and blockages. Images are taken of the heart's main pumping chamber to check its functions.

Coronary balloon angioplasty involves creating space in a blocked artery by inserting and inflating a tiny balloon, which compresses the plaque blocking the artery against the arterial wall. The balloon does not remain in the body. This procedure can be done electively at a scheduled time or emergently during a heart attack.

Intracoronary stenting involves permanently inserting a tiny stainless steel wire mesh tube, called a stent, to keep arteries open following angioplasty. Bare metal and drug eluting (medication releasing) stents are available.

Intravascular ultrasound involves passing a small catheter into a coronary artery to emit sound waves that produce an image of the blockage. This image provides the physician needed information as how to best manage the blockage.

Pacemaker insertion is provided to patients with abnormally slow heart rhythms, congestive heart failure, and those at risk for sudden death. Wires, called leads, are inserted into the chambers of the heart. When proper positioning and conduction has been confirmed, a small generator is connected to the leads and permanently placed just under the skin.

Peripheral intervention involves the evaluation of diseases of the blood vessels outside the heart, known as peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Balloon angioplasty and stenting may be used similarly to heart procedures.

Peripheral atherectomy involves cutting through plaque in the blood vessels outside the heart. The plaque is reduced to particles smaller than red blood cells. The result is a smoother inner surface of the vessel, resulting in increased blood flow through the artery.