OR-Live.com Presents: Two Live Cardiac Catheterization Webcasts From the Heart Institute at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center

Live Webcast: February 1, 2005 at 5:00 pm EST

As part of its educational outreach for American Heart Month, the Heart Institute at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center will offer the public a chance to watch two live cardiac catheterizations during a webcast of the procedures Tuesday, February 1 at 5 p.m. Howard Levite, MD, medical director of the Heart Institute at ACMC and director of the Heart Institute's cardiac catheterization laboratories; and Giuseppe Gioia, MD, FACC, is an interventional cardiologist at the Heart Institute at ACMC, will perform the procedures. Nader Ghaly, MD, FACC, FAHA, director of electrophysiology and arrhythmia services at the Heart Institute at ACMC, will moderate.

During a cardiac catheterization, which can be a diagnostic and a treatment procedure, the cardiac catheterization team inserts a thin plastic tube or catheter into an artery or vein in a patient's arm or leg. The team then threads the catheter into the chambers of the heart or into the arteries of the heart.

"This webcast will help the public learn more about cardiac catheterization, emergency angioplasty and heart disease," said Howard Levite, MD, MBA, medical director of the Heart Institute at ACMC and director of the cardiac catheterization laboratories at ACMC. "Advances in heart catheterizations have led to many exciting diagnostic and treatment capabilities that are more efficient and effective for patients."

The Heart Institute is the only regional hospital that can provide low and high-risk cardiac catheterizations, because it is the only hospital the state has designated to perform cardiac surgery in the region. The Heart Institute, which opened in the summer of 2001, is southeastern New Jersey's first and only full service cardiac surgical and interventional program. Based at ACMC's Mainland Campus, the Heart Institute and its team offer nearly every cardiac interventional procedure available, including angioplasty, electrophysiology studies, pacemaker and defibrillator implantation and open-heart surgery. The Heart Institute also offers off-pump bypass surgery and minimally invasive procedures including coronary artery bypass surgery; valve repair and replacement; and endoscopic vein removal.

Visit http://www.or-live.com/AtlantiCare/1215 now to view doctor's comments and a program preview. A VNR is available at http://www.or-live.com/rams/ach-1215-mkw-q.ram

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