MedWest-Harris now offering transesophageal echocardiograms to improve diagnosis of heart issues

8/13/2012

MedWest-Harris now offering transesophageal echocardiograms to improve diagnosis of heart issues

Sylva, N.C. – MedWest-Harris is now offering specialized ultrasounds called transesophageal echocardiograms to improve the diagnosis of heart issues. 

Laura Verde, MD, a partner at Sylva Cardiology with Earl Haddock, MD, who is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, is now performing innovative transesophageal echocardiogram, or TEE, tests at MedWest-Harris. 

A TEE involves a patient swallowing an ultrasound probe. Images are then captured from behind the heart. Unlike a transthoracic echocardiogram, or TTE, a transesophageal echocardiogram test gives a direct view of the heart since the probe is in the esophagus and the heart sits right in front of the esophagus. With a transthoracic echocardiogram, lungs, muscle, fat, bones and other body structures are near the heart and can make imaging challenging. 

Among its benefits, Verde said transesophageal echocardiograms can rule out endocarditis and atrial clots, give better images of prosthetic valves, help evaluate for suspected intracardiac masses, and provide better diagnostic imaging for patients with poor transthoracic echocardiograms. 

MedWest-Harris also recently received re-accreditation for its echocardiography care from the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, a gold-standard accreditation that involved the hospital undergoing a thorough review of its operational and technical components by a panel of experts. 

“Within the last year at MedWest-Harris, we started doing pharmacological stress tests for people not able to walk on a treadmill, direct current cardioversions to convert patients with arrhythmias back into normal rhythm and transesophageal echocardiograms,” Verde said. “I am really glad that we are now able to provide these services to our community right here at our local hospital.”