Hospital administrators at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California consider veteran cath lab supervisor Joanne Colley “amazing” for the routine reports she generates on a monthly basis, but an absolute “star” when asked for custom reports.

What is the size of your cath lab facility and number of staff members? Community Medical Center is a 310-bed facility. We currently have 3 procedure rooms: the first for electrophysiology, the second for peripheral procedures, and a third for cardiac procedures. The rooms are all GE Advantix (two with 9-inch and one with 16-inch image intensifiers).

Not very long ago, the idea of directly injecting the coronary vasculature with a contrast agent was thought to be fatal, for surely, the patient would suffer a fatal arrhythmia or infarction. In the late 1950s, Dr. F. Mason Sones proved that coronary angiography could be done safely. About 20 years later, the idea of treating coronary artery disease with a catheter was met with the same doubts and fears, but Dr. Andreas Gruentzig believed otherwise. At first, percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty (PTCA) was a fairly risky procedure, with cardiac arrhythmias, vessel dissections, and emergent bypass surgery not uncommon.

The effective prevention of ischemic stroke resulting from atheroembolic extracranial vascular disease was first realized with the introduction of carotid surgery by Eastcott, Pickering and Rob in 19541. Over the ensuing years, the critics of carotid endarterectomy were many and only over a period of nearly twenty years was it finally shown through two widely accepted studies (i.e. NASCET and ACAS) and numerous corollary trials to be effective for both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with appropriate degrees of stenosis and other risk factors.^2–5

ABSTRACT: When dealing with acute coronary syndromes, the interventionists often go straight to balloon and stents, because they work quick and well in the majority of cases. However, it is not to forget that vigorous antithrombotic treatment is frequently highly beneficial in these settings. We report here on two clinical cases of coronary thrombosis in which we could appreciate on the angiograms the effect of GpIIb-IIIa inhibitor eptifibatide alone or in conjunction with alteplase. Reprinted with permission from the Journal of Invasive Cardiology 2004; 16:343–344

Discussion group members responded to the questions below, and emails are included for any questions readers may have regarding a particular lab’s policies. If you’d like to join our group, please send an email to: CathLabDigest@hotmail.com

I have been practicing and involved in the field since 1971, after having graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. I am a registered radiologic technologist. Personally, I have been married 32 years to a saint. I also have one wonderful daughter who is 22 years old. I have worked both sides of the healthcare fence: I was on the commercial side for 12 years reaching VP status at XRE and Superior Consulting Corporation, and have worked on the clinical side for 22 years, working in cath labs as a manager and also managing three radiology departments.