Glossary
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Adult Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology
Diagnostic cardiology and interventional cardiology are subspecialties of cardiology that focus on the use of minimally invasive techniques to diagnose and treat diseases of the heart.
Bilirubin is a natural byproduct of heme catabolism. Red blood cells are being created and destroyed in the human body continuously. The average life of a red blood cell is about four months. When a red blood cell is broken apart (a process called hemolysis), it is reduced to three parts: globin (a protein), iron (which is saved for later use), and heme (a complex molecule containing iron). Heme is broken up (catabolisis) and one of its byproducts is bilirubin. Bilirubin becomes a part of what is known as bile and is transferred from the liver to the spleen through the bile duct. Bilirubin is orange-yellow in color. If, for some reason, the normal disposal of bilirubin is interrupted, it backs up in the liver. One symptom of this condition is jaundice, a yellowing of the skin.
A biopsy tome or bioptome is a special catheter used to extract small tissue samples.
In medicine, a catheter is a tube that can be inserted into different parts of the body. The tube can then be used to help drain fluids from the body or provide access for special instruments. Catheters can be hard or soft and come in many different sizes.
Coil embolics are tiny metallic coils of wire created from alloys that “remember” their shape. These wires are fed through a catheter into an aneurysm. When they exit the catheter they returns to their original coiled shape. These coils are used to fill up the ballooned-out space of the aneurysm. This slows the flow of blood in the aneurysm and allows it to clot, which keeps the aneurysm from growing any larger and prevents the possibility of it rupturing.
Chemoembolization is a way of delivering cancer-destroying chemotherapy directly to a tumor. With X-ray imaging to help guide him or her, one of our specialists in vascular interventional radiology use small catheters inserted into the body through the femoral artery, an artery in the groin, to feed chemotherapy directly into the tumor site via the blood vessels of the body. Chemoembolization helps kill the cancer in two ways. First, it delivers a much stronger dose of chemotherapy to the cancer than can be delivered intravenously. Second, it cuts off blood supply to the tumor, starving it of the oxygen and nutrients it needs to grow. Chemoembolization is often used in tandem with other treatments to attack the cancer aggressively.
Cryoablation is a technique for destroying tissue through freezing it by delivering a coolant to the targeted tissue via a catheter.
Simply put, a drainage catheter is a small tube placed inside the body to allow fluid to drain.
Electrophysiology/Electrophysiologist
An electrophysiologist, or more specifically, a cardiac electrophysiologist, is a physician who specializes in the electrical activities of specific regions of the heart. The heart muscle, like all muscles, responds to electrical stimulation provided by the nervous system. The neural network that allows the heart to function is the province of the cardiac electrophysiologist. Patients dealing with irregular heartbeats, arrhythmias, will often consult with an electrophysiologist.
A substance used as an embolus in the process of embolization.
An embolus is a foreign body introduced into the blood stream that blocks the flow of blood.
Embolization is a minimally invasive procedure used to block a blood vessel. When a physician chooses to embolize a vessel that is bleeding, it is because he or she has determined that the vein or artery is doing more harm than good. There are many types of materials used as emboli (plural of embolus – a foreign body introduced deliberately into the blood stream to block the flow of blood). Emboli include small coils, screens, PVC pellets, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particles, and metal sponges.
The femoral artery is a large artery in the muscles of the thigh. A branch of the iliac artery, the femoral artery feeds the leg and is often used as the means of introducing catheters used in minimally invasive radiological and cardiological procedures.
Microwave ablation is a technique for destroying tissue by delivering microwave energy to it using a specially designed probe introduced to the area via a catheter.
Neurointerventional radiology is a medical subspecialty of radiology, which focuses on minimally invasive treatments of problems in the area of the head, neck, and spine.
Percutaneous procedures are those that take place through the skin. For example, a catheter introduced into the femoral artery would be considered a percutaneous procedure.
Percutaneous drainage is a minimally invasive method for draining fluids from inside the human body. A physician called a radiologist uses X-ray imaging equipment to help guide a small tube called a drainage catheter to the area to be drained. Normally, the catheter is introduced into the body via an artery, the femoral artery, in the inner thigh or groin area.
Polyvinyl alcohol is a polymer with adhesive characteristics, particles of which are used as emboli in embolization procedures.
Pulmonary arteries carry blood from the heart to the lungs. They are the only arteries in the adult human body that carry de-oxygenated blood.
Radioembolization, or Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT)
A procedure in which tiny radioactive microspheres smaller than the diameter of a human hair, are introduced into the tumor site where they irradiate the cancerous cells and kill them. The arteries feeding the tumors are rendered inoperable which also helps to kill the cancerous tissue by starving it of blood.
As it pertains to the heart, radiofrequency ablation uses radiofrequency energy (heat) to destroy abnormal electrical pathways in the heart muscle. An electrode is introduced into the heart through a catheter in a process known as cardiac catheterization. Using complex imaging equipment, the physician, an electrophysiologist, first “maps” the area of the heart causing the problem to locate the specific neural pathways that are firing abnormally. Other types of ablation include cryoablation and microwave ablation.
Re-stenosis, the re-narrowing of an artery, occurs when scar tissue grows through an implanted stent, or when an artery opened by a medical procedure becomes blocked or partially blocked again.
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT)
See Radioembolization.
Aneurysms can be classified in two ways – saccular and fusiform. A saccular aneurysm resembles a small sac attached to the artery. A fusiform aneurysm is more cigar-shaped and involves a broader expanse of the artery wall. Saccular aneurysms can be treated with a number of embolics. Fusiform aneurysms with particularly wide necks, wide-neck aneurysms, require a different approach often involving a combination of stents and coils.
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