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Can someone tell me the diff in an interventional, invasive, electro, and non invasive???
Can someone explain the diff branches of Cardiology
- Thread starter allendo
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allendo said:
I'll take a shot at explaining this...
Interventional--does catheter-based treatments (angioplasty, stenting etc.) other than for arrhythmias (see below). Requires (I believe) 1 year additional training after general cards fellowship.
Electrophysiology (EP)--focuses on arrhythmias; does invasive (catheter-based) mapping of heart's electrical system to determine the source of an arrhythmia and performs catheter ablation to treat arrhythmias--basically the idea of this procedure is to "burn" the small area of tissue that is triggering the problem. Requires 1 or 2 years additional training beyond fellowship.
Non-invasive--doesn't do even diagnostic cath; I don't think they do trans-esophageal echo either, but I could be mistaken. Basically general clinical cardiology, excluding the above mentioned invasive tests.
Invasive--does diagnostic cath (e.g. angiogram) and TEE, as well as general cardiology
Hope this helps; if I omitted anything or made a mistake anywhere perhaps someone else can clarify (I'm not even in med school yet). Have a great day!
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Just to clarify V-Tach's answer.
Interventional & Invasive are generally considered synonymous. An interventional cardiology fellowship is generally 1 year after a cardio fellowship, although many places are expanding this to two years. An interventionalist gets training in percutaneous coronary interventions including coronary stenting and coronary angioplasty. Some places even train them for peripheral vascular stenting, such as renal artery stents and carotid stents. Other interventions can also be learnt (again, depending on where you train) such as PFO closure.
Electrophysiology (EP) is 1, sometimes 2 yrs after general cardio. They specialize in diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias. The EP studies they do involve localization of lesions and radiofrequency catheter ablation of the same. Additionally, they also learn placement of devices such as pacemakers, biventricular pacers, and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.
General cardiologists do not undergo this specialized training. However, they can still perform transesophageal echocardiograms and diagnostic catheterizations. They also learn interpretation of transthoracic echocardiograms and, sometimes, nuclear cardiology studies.
Interventional & Invasive are generally considered synonymous. An interventional cardiology fellowship is generally 1 year after a cardio fellowship, although many places are expanding this to two years. An interventionalist gets training in percutaneous coronary interventions including coronary stenting and coronary angioplasty. Some places even train them for peripheral vascular stenting, such as renal artery stents and carotid stents. Other interventions can also be learnt (again, depending on where you train) such as PFO closure.
Electrophysiology (EP) is 1, sometimes 2 yrs after general cardio. They specialize in diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias. The EP studies they do involve localization of lesions and radiofrequency catheter ablation of the same. Additionally, they also learn placement of devices such as pacemakers, biventricular pacers, and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.
General cardiologists do not undergo this specialized training. However, they can still perform transesophageal echocardiograms and diagnostic catheterizations. They also learn interpretation of transthoracic echocardiograms and, sometimes, nuclear cardiology studies.
