DEPARTMENT OF CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE KYUSHU UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

The importance of catheterization in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease has continued to increase in recent years.

In our department, we perform cardiac catheterization (cardiac cath) and electrophysiological studies (EPS) for various heart diseases including coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, myocardiopathy, peripheral artery disease, reral arterial sterosis, heart failure, arrythmias and heart transplantation, and the number of examinations and treatments are increasing. Especially, we are using advanced equipment including intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), directional coronary atherectomy (DCA), rotational atherectomy (ROTA), pressure wire, and flow wire to achieve accurate diagnosis and adequate treatment for coronary and/or peripheral arterial disease. From 2006, we have also started laser catheter ablation for coronary artery disease as a highly advanced medical technology.

As an area of expertise of our department, we are actively evaluating the diagnosis and the pathophysiology of coronary vasospastic angina and coronary microvascular angina, which have been recognized to be common among Japanese, and the data from our laboratory have produced results that can become world standard. Often, patients with chest pain that could not be diagnosed in other hospitals are found to have coronary microvascular angina at our department.

No. of heart catheterizations: 925 cases in 2008 (total of 1,265 cases in Heart Center)
No. of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI): 184 cases in 2008 (total of 234 cases in Heart Center)
PCI early success rate: 98% in 2008

No. of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and renal angioplasty (PTRA): 16 cases in 2008 (99 cases in Hear Center)
Restenosis rate: 5% (drug-eluting stent), 11% (bare metal stent) in 2008

We also devote our efforts to electrophysiological studies (EPS) and radio-frequency catheter ablation (RFCA) for the treatment of arrhythmias.
RFCA therapy has been established as a less invasive curative treatment, and we are performing their treatments for many types of arrhythmias including Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, atrial flutter, atrial tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, and ventricular tachycardia, and so on.

No. of EPS: 108 cases in 2008
No. of catheter ablations: 73 cases in 2008 (total of 105 cases in Heart Center)
RFCA success rate: 96% in 2008

All members of staff would like to devote our best efforts to provide high quality care for patients admitted to our hospital and also for those visiting our hospital. (Masao Takemoto, MD, PhD, Chief in Cardiac Cath Lab)