Information for patients

Links

Wellington Hospital
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Clementine Churchill BMI (Harrow)
Lindo Wing, St Mary's Hospital

Patient testimonials

First, I can’t thank you enough for all your time, interest and care on Thursday.

Secondly, the one stop ‘plumb and sparks’ shop is seriously impressive, staffed by great, caring and efficient people who are fun. In about an hour to do an echo, treadmill test and take 49 blood samples etc. must be close to a W.R....

Seriously, from the patients point of view you are offering full diagnostics almost in the ‘golden hour’ whereas with most other approaches it takes more like a month! The expeditious approach apart from removing patients uncertainty which often weighs heavily means if necessary you are in to treatment almost immediately....

Patients will definitely feel that they and their quality of lfe is being put first.

Mr Y. (2010) Suffolk.

Bubble Study (Contrast Echo)

One of the best ways to identify the presence of a hole in the heart, such as Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) or a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) is to perform a bubble study. Normally, the right (low pressure side of the heart) does not communicate with the left high pressure side of the heart. However, individuals with an ASD or PFO blood can flow from right to left.

A normal Transthoracic Echocardiogram is performed. A small needle will be placed into the vein on the back of the hand. The cardiologist will then draw up some sterile saline into a syringe, agitate it so that microscopic bubbles are formed in the saline solution. These are then injected briskly into the vein, whilst the imaging takes place. The right side of the heart (connected to the venous system) opacifies very nicely, as the bubbles show very brightly on the contrast echocardiogram. No bubbles should be seen on the far side of the heart. However, if bubbles do appear on the left side of the heart, this is a positive test and strongly indicates the presence of a hole in the heart. Your cardiologist will probably then wish to perform a Trans-Oesophageal echocardiogram (TOE) to delineate this and make decisions about whether closing the defect with a device is appropriate.