Cardiology
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Cardiology
Cardiology is the specialty that deals with the heart and its surrounding blood vessels. Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty's cardiology service is based at Tauranga Hospital with outpatient clinics at Whakatāne Hospital.
The service diagnoses and treats diseases of heart and the circulatory system. This includes the heart arteries (angina, heart attack), the electrical system (abnormal heart rhythm, pacemaker), the heart muscle (heart failure) and valves.
Conditions seen by our cardiologists
Common conditions include - heart attack, angina, heart failure, palpitation and abnormal heart rhythms, valve disorders and congenital heart disease.
Diagnostics available at Tauranga Hospital include electrocardiograph (ECG), echocardiography, exercise treadmill testing, Holter monitoring, diagnostic angiography and transoesophageal echocardiograms.
The service also implants and follows-up pacemakers and ICDs ('shock boxes') for abnormal heart rhythm.
Angioplasty or stenting procedure (PCI) was introduced to Tauranga Hospital in April 2012, after previously being available only outside the Bay of Plenty. We have performed more than 1300 interventional PCI procedures since then. PCI is a minimally invasive procedure used to treat narrowed coronary arteries of the heart found in heart disease. We do not do "open heart surgery" at Tauranga Hospital - these are normally performed at Waikato Hospital.
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