What is the size of your cath lab facility and number of staff members? The Cardiac Cath Lab at Eisenhower Medical Center is located in a separate wing on the hospital main floor. We have two very large suites, a pre-op area, ample storage areas, a staff meeting room with windows, an office, a computerized physician reporting area, a kitchen and locker facilities. The department is aesthetically beautiful in décor. There are high-gloss wood floors, desert tone tiling, neutral wall coloring, and an interesting collection of photographic artwork created by our own radiologic technologist, Mike McKeever, RT.

“I know that beta-blockers are supposed to slow the heart rate down, but why do the doctors use it for blood pressure?” — RCIS Review Student

What was your impression of this year’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting? The overall atmosphere at TCT 2007 was much calmer than last year’s meeting, buoyed by late follow-up analyses from the major trials and a wide range of stent registry reports. We saw more abundant data — single-center and multi-center studies, as well as regional studies from different geographic areas — so this year we had a much clearer picture of the current state of drug-eluting stents (DES), and there was less concern about some of the previously reported adverse event rates.

Pass the CCI RCIS exam? Get promoted? Have you changed facilities? Cath Lab Digest welcomes notification of personnel changes for cardiac catheterization laboratories as well as RCIS certification or other licensure announcements. Send your announcement to managing editor Rebecca Kapur at rkapur@hmpcommunications.com, and we will publish it in the next available issue.

Today’s successes in the cardiovascular field are largely due in part to the thousands of professionals who work worldwide in cardiovascular research. The first documented “experiment” by Claude Bernard opened the door to today’s modern developments. In 1844, Claude Bernard inserted a mercury thermometer into a horse’s carotid artery, advanced it through the aortic valve and into the left ventricle to measure blood temperature. Bernard’s experiment and clinical research has led the way to develop today’s high-tech equipment, procedures and highly effective drugs. To protect patients, animals, and medical professionals from poorly designed or misguided experiments, the rules and regulations have changed since the 1800’s. The term “experiment” has also been replaced by “clinical trials” to better match the new control over the development of new procedures, drugs and devices.

A poem for those in the cath lab on the Christmas holiday.

Multiple new and ongoing questions from readers. Your responses are welcome! Answer or pose a question at cathlabdigest@aol.com.

To the Editor: Your September 2007 Editor’s Corner “Is Crossing the Stenotic Aortic Valve Obsolete?” relates the new recommendations from the ACC/AHA discouraging routine attempts to cross the aortic valve due to the risk of stroke.

“Teamwork” is a term with many connotations and is often used in the today’s corporate world. The healthcare setting specifically has been very progressive in terms of team creation and recognition. Overall, teamwork seeks to improve organizational productivity and motivation, employee morale, creativity and innovation, and efficiency in processes and procedures. Teamwork can also be effective in helping to meet strategic objectives and goals for a hospital, service line, or department.

Cardiovascular Professionals Week: February 10-16, 2008. For Cardiovascular Week, get the Promotion and Publicity Kit from the Alliance of Cardiovascular Professionals at www.acp-online.org The following article is reprinted with permission from volume 50, issue 4 (September/October) of the ACVP newsletter.

We have all been hearing a great deal about the ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) guidelines from the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC). In 2007, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas, a large metropolitan acute care hospital, initiated processes and procedures to ensure compliance with these new guidelines.

Dr. Unverdorben discusses the results of two trials which have shown a drug-eluting balloon to be associated with low late lumen loss and low major adverse events (MACE) in small coronary arteries, and superiority for late lumen loss and MACE to a drug-eluting stent for the treatment of in-stent restenosis. He presented initial trial data at TCT 2007 and shares his thoughts on the future of this new technology.

The STEMI Intervention section showcases best practices and pathways to improvement, whether dramatic or incremental. Cath Lab Digest encourages outstanding facilities to submit their work. For author guidelines, email Rebecca Kapur at rkapur@hmpcommunications.com.

Your patient just had an left anterior descending (LAD) coronary stent implanted last week and calls the cath lab to ask when he can have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination so his knee surgery can proceed. Do you know which metallic implanted devices are safe for MRI imaging?

I started working in Baptist Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1975 as an ECG tech. I had a friend who was a transcriptionist in the cath lab and she got me a trainee position. I transferred to the cath lab myself about 18 months later, also as a transcriptionist, and then as a treadmill and echo tech. In 1983, I moved to San Francisco for an echo job, then three months later moved to Kaiser Hospital as a cardiovascular technologist (CVT). I have been there ever since. I have had several certifications from various organizations over the years, but the one I treasure most is the Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialist (RCIS), which I got about five years ago.

News from the Emerald Coast Chapter and the Keystone Chapter.

SICP Editor’s note: Shirly is an active member of the Oregon Chapter of the SICP (Society of Invasive Cardiovascular Professionals) and is writing a series of articles about teamwork. We hope you enjoy her work.