Magnitude of the Problem
The rush to develop methods to monitor for the progression of heart failure has occurred for a number of reasons. First, there are about 1 million hospitalizations per year for heart failure in the United States, making this diagnosis the number one cause of hospital admissions. Secondly, the economic impact of heart failure is estimated to be about $28 billion annually.¹ As the population ages, the financial clout of this one diagnosis on our health care budget will be devastating. The implantation of devices to help monitor and serve as a warning s

The intention of this mini-review is to help identify the location, characteristics and methods for monitoring the esophagus during ablative therapies of the left atrium.

Anatomic Location and Features of the Esophagus
Under normal circumstances, the esophagus descends along the mid-lateral wall of the left atrium, usually near the antrums of the left pulmonary veins. Figures 1A through 1D are different views of three-dimensional reconstructions of the left atrium and the esophagus. This was performed using standard contrast media for the left atrium, with the patient having swa

What is the size of your EP lab facility and number of staff members? What is the mix of credentials at your lab?
We currently operate from two rooms shared by the entire cath lab. The largest of those rooms will become a dedicated EP lab at the completion of our cath lab expansion in early 2006. We have two full-time Electrophysiologists, Dr. Jeffrey Smith, our EP Director, and Dr. Leela Narra. Four staff members are dedicated to the EP lab, but also participate in other cath lab cases as needed: two RNs, 1 RCIS, and 1 RT(R). All of our staff have some form of critical care exper

You re causing ectopy...oh. He s dead. It s alright, keep trying. Those were the words of a fellow biomedical engineer this past May at the annual Heart Rhythm meeting. I was using a cath lab simulator, trying to insert an ICD lead into a simulated heart. The technician was doing his best to help me. He recommended various wires and other devices, told me where to put things, when to twist, when to feed it in further. To me, the image on the fluoroscope looked like a wire wiggling rhythmically in empty space. Eventually, I had to leave and gave up, though not without some

New Questions:

Free-Standing Lab
I need to know if anyone is getting reimbursed for EP studies done in a free-standing cath lab. We are going to be opening one in a couple of months and we need some input on the feasibility of using this for our EP studies. We are in the state of Florida, and as of right now, no one is doing this as far as we know. Please help.
P. Vowell, Coding/Billing Specialist
Readers, to reply to this question, please type Free-Standing in your subject line.

Pay for CVTs
Is there a database or has anyone done a study for the pay ranges for