The first step in heart care is the screening of each patient for heart disease. With the wide range of diagnostic tests available, each patient’s testing can be customized. Some of the more common tests available at North Oaks include:

EKG – Used to measure the heart’s electrical impulses to detect a heart attack or other abnormalities.

Echocardiogram – An ultrasound used to examine the heart’s chambers, valves and blood flow.

Stress Test or “Treadmill” – Indicates how well the heart handles work during exercise. It can detect ischemia which indicates decreased blood flow in the arteries that supply the heart and helps doctors understand the kind and level of exercise appropriate for the patient.

Nuclear Scan – Indicates how well blood flows to the heart muscle.

Diagnostic Catheterization – A test during which a doctor inserts a thin plastic tube, or catheter, into an artery in the arm or leg. It is then advanced into the heart chambers or coronary arteries where a special dye is used to locate blockages.

Interventional Catheterization – Diagnostic catheterization procedures may develop into a treatment intervention called angioplasty. It involves using a deflated balloon at the end of a catheter, which is inflated at the point of the blockage to widen the artery and compress the plaque. A stent may be inserted at that point to prop open the artery after the procedure.