Maury Regional Health enhances interventional cardiology

Heart disease is one of the nation's most common health problems - the leading cause of death for Americans ages 35 and older.

In an effort to help physicians provide faster and more efficient cardiac care to the region, Maury Regional Medical Center in Columbia is further enhancing its cardiac catheterization laboratories with the installation of new state-of-the-art technology. Maury Regional Medical Center offers two cardiac catheterization labs where a multidisciplinary team of interventional cardiologists, electrophysiologists, nurses and imaging specialists investigate heart conditions, perform interventional procedures to open blocked vessels and implant pacemakers and cardiac defibrillators.

"We have an outstanding team of physicians through Vanderbilt Heart who are able to open blocked vessels quickly to minimize damage to the heart and save lives," said Maury Regional Health CEO Davin Turner, DO. "This new technology will further enhance our ability to provide care to our patients, close to home when minutes matter."

Maury Regional Medical Center will conduct minimally invasive cardiac procedures utilizing the Azurion image-guided therapy system from Philips Healthcare to be installed in May. The new technology provides high-quality imaging, achieving excellent visibility at low X-ray dose levels for patients. This fully digital system utilizes intravascular venous ultrasound and enables physicians to capture and view detailed images of a patient's coronary structure to facilitate faster diagnosis and treatment of cardiac disease.

"Both our patients and clinicians can benefit from the speed, low-dose levels and outstanding image quality of this new X-ray system," explained Chief Medical Officer Martin Chaney, MD.

This flexible system can also aid in the diagnosis and treatment of a range of patient conditions and can be used for procedures such as diagnostic catheterizations, stenting and balloon angioplasty. The benefits of catheter-based interventions include shorter hospital stays, reduced recovery time without the pain of a large incision and less visible surgical scarring. These procedures can be performed on both the heart and peripheral blood vessels.

Updates to the first catheterization lab are scheduled to be completed in May, with the second lab to be completed in September. In addition, the renovation will include updating pre- and post-procedure areas for patients as well as work stations for staff.

Maury Regional Medical Center is recognized as a Chest Pain Center with PCI by the American College of Cardiology and holds certification in the treatment of heart failure from The Joint Commission. To learn more, visit MauryRegional.com/Heart.