The Heart Center at Torresdale
Many cardiac conditions are based on the abnormalities in the heart’s beating rhythm. The heart has a finely tuned electrical system that keeps it beating in a dependable, coordinated, rhythmic fashion. But in some people, the heart may experience a period
of beating too quickly, too slowly, or in an irregular pattern. These conditions may be benign and may only be detected incidentally,
or they can be debilitating, dangerous, or deadly.
The portion of the heart’s physiology that is its electrical system is the domain of a specialized group of heart doctors
called the cardiac electrophysiologists. These doctors can identify and treat arrhythmia in the heart. They can confirm weather weakness, fatigue, feelings of a racing heart, lightheadedness, or fainting are symptoms of heart arrhythmia.
Tissue injury or abnormalities in the heart walls or nearby vessels can alter the network of nerve cells that initiate, relay,
and conduct the signals that cause the heart wall to contract. Sometimes changes in the heart’s electrical system can be
caused but other types of heart disease; in other cases, the heart rhythm problem is the primary basis of the symptoms and
there is no clear cause for why the condition developed.
The highly trained cardiologists who staff the electrophysiology (EP) laboratory at Frankford’s heart center make very exacting
use of electrocardiography, wearable monitoring, as well as computerized heart mapping systems to trace the electrical patterns of the heart. They may use conservative,
non-invasive treatments for arrhythmia or interventional or surgical methods of correction. Treatment approaches can include:
• lifestyle changes. This can involve modifying stress or reducing intake of caffeine or alcohol.
• medication. Increasingly effective medications have become available for reducing heart arrhythmia.
• implantable devices. EP specialists can place small, self-contained electrical devices under the skin and thread their tiny, wire-like leads
to key areas of the heart’s electrical system. These devices may pace the heart’s beat at all times or may stimulate the
heart when abnormal rhythms take place, or both. The devices can convert an abnormal rhythm to a normal one and can record
information about heart rhythm that the specialists can download and read to monitor heart status and get a record of any
abnormal events. The EP team can normally implant such devices in an outpatient procedure.
• cardiac ablation. EP specialists can also offer a form of interventional care, in which they make a skin incision (usually in the groin) to
access a vein and thread into the heart catheters that can detect abnormalities and that can use laser energy or other means
to “burn” out problem electrical tissue. This newer approach can offer a very effective, permanent cure for many types of
arrhythmia including, more recently, atrial fibrillation.
• surgery. In collaborative procedures between cardiovascular surgeons and EP specialists, the cardiac team can provide conventional,
open-chest operations to map the areas in which the heart-rhythm problems originate and to remove, destroy, or isolate these
locations, if all other means of treatment have failed.
Some patients may need a combination of these treatments.
At the Heart Center at Frankford, patients benefit from the newest, most advanced technology and capabilities, delivered in
the most up-to-date EP labs. Most patients can enjoy treatment without the need for a hospital stay and can appreciate marked
or complete improvement in heart-arrhythmia symptoms.
The EP program at the Torresdale Heart Center also provides a support group for patients receiving implantable devices.
