Interventional Cardiology
Englewood Health’s interventional cardiology program provides the most innovative minimally invasive treatments and diagnostic testing for coronary artery disease, valve disease, and peripheral vascular disease.
These interventional procedures may offer an alternative to more invasive treatment options. Our highly trained doctors will recommend the most appropriate treatments for you based on your medical history, symptoms, and testing.
About Englewood Health’s Interventional Cardiology Program
Our highly skilled interventional cardiologists take a team approach to provide the care you need. We perform procedures using cardiac catheterization, a minimally invasive method to access the blood vessels around your heart.
The evolution of minimally invasive interventional technology still astounds me. And it continues to evolve, so there will be more and more that we can do for patients to fix their valves and fix their coronary arteries.
Dr. Joseph De Gregorio, Executive Director of Cardiovascular Services
Our Cardiac Catheterization Lab (or cath lab) features the last transcatheter treatments and imaging capabilities to provide accurate diagnosis and treatment for a wide range of cardiovascular diseases.
Cardiac Catheterization for Diagnosis
We use cardiac catheterization to identify blocked arteries, evaluate heart and lung function, and identify valvular heart disease.
During the procedure, we thread a hollow tube, or catheter, from an artery in your body to your heart. Then we inject dye into your blood vessels, using special X-rays to create images of your heart (called angiograms).
Cardiac Catheterization for Treatment
Your doctor may also use cardiac catheterization to perform some treatments, such as coronary angioplasty and coronary stenting.
Interventional cardiologists are equipped to fix damaged arteries with amazing techniques that don’t use an incision. We’re basically revascularizing your heart, restoring blood flow to your heart muscle to get you back in action.
Dr. Richard Goldweit, Chief of Interventional Cardiology
Angioplasty and Stenting
Coronary angioplasty is performed to restore blood flow through the arteries that supply blood flow to the heart. A thin tube is inserted through a blood vessel into the coronary arteries (blood vessels of the heart). Through this tube we can position a tiny balloon, which we inflate to widen your artery and restore blood flow. Almost always after that procedure stenting of the artery is performed. With this treatment, we place a small wire mesh tube (called a stent) inside the clogged artery to prop it open. The stent stays in place permanently to reduce the chances of the artery narrowing again.
Carotid Artery Stenting
Carotid arteries are the major blood vessels in your neck that supply blood to your brain, neck, and face. In this procedure, we insert and expand a slender, metal-mesh tube, called a stent, inside the carotid artery to increase blood flow in areas blocked by plaque.
Rotational Atherectomy
This treatment is used for blockages of the arteries of the heart with extensive calcium. For this treatment, your interventional cardiologist inserts a small drill-like instrument into your coronary arteries to break up calcium to allow for better results with stenting.
Peripheral Vascular Intervention
This procedure removes plaque and restores blood flow in blockages of the arteries in the legs or arms.
Valvuloplasty
We use this procedure to repair a stiff heart valve, a condition called valvular stenosis, so blood can flow through freely. This procedure can be performed on any stenotic valve, however most frequently involves the aortic valve. Your interventional cardiologist inserts a small, narrow catheter with a large balloon at the tip across the valve. We inflate the balloon until the valve flaps (or leaflets) open, then we deflate the balloon and remove the catheter.
Valve Replacement
Many times valvuloplasty is not the appropriate treatment, and your interventional cardiologist may recommend valve replacement or repair. Englewood Health has extensive experience in aortic valve replacement and mitral valve repair using minimally invasive techniques, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and the MitraClip procedure, and are leaders in cardiac surgery.
Treatment for Chronic Total Occlusion
Coronary arteries are vessels that supply blood to your heart. Chronic total occlusions (CTO) happens when plaque completely blocks one of these arteries for at least three months.
Until recently, medication and open heart surgery were the main ways to treat chronic total occlusions, while other patients are told that nothing can be done to treat CTO using standard angioplasty. However, newer techniques allow our highly skilled interventional cardiologists to use percutaneous coronary intervention, or angioplasty, to successfully treat CTO. Here at Englewood Health we have one of the few CTO programs in northern New Jersey, including physicians with specialized training and extensive experience leading to an impressive 90-percent success rate.