What is The Christ Hospital Chest Pain Center?
The Christ Hospital works hard treat victims of myocardial infarction or heart attack and other chest pain conditions and is the first hospital in Greater Cincinnati to receive Chest Pain Center Full Accreditation with Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Capabilities by the Society of Chest Pain Centers. 

Although chest pain is one of the most common complaints of patients presenting to the emergency department, only 10 – 15 percent of patients with chest pain are having a heart attack. One of the goals of a Chest Pain Center (CPC) is to significantly reduce the time it takes for a patient experiencing symptoms of a possible heart attack to see a physician, thus reducing the time to treatment during the critical early stages, when treatments are most effective.

Another feature of the Chest Pain Center is to provide a specialized observation setting in which physicians are better able to monitor patients when it is not clear whether they are having a cardiac event. Such observation helps ensure that a patient is not sent home too early and that you are treated properly according to the most accurate diagnosis.

How is a heart attack evaluated?
A heart attack is evaluated using several different methods, but most often your doctor will order a simple test called an electrocardiogram (EKG). This test monitors the electrical activity within the heart and can aid your doctor in determining if your condition is angina or if you are actually having a heart attack. The doctor may also order blood tests that can determine if there is damage to the heart muscle.

Other possible tests your doctor may order to evaluate a possible heart attack are:

• Laboratory testing, i.e. heart enzymes
• Stress Test
• Nuclear Stress Test
• Echocardiogram
• Coronary (heart) Angiography

If your doctor determines that you are having a heart attack (or have already had one), he or she will quickly stabilize the condition in several ways.

How can I have my chest pain treated faster?
This chest pain treatment may begin before you enter the emergency room. The Christ Hospital has partnered with area Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers to advance and improve the treatment for heart attack. EMS providers use special technology that can make the diagnosis of heart attack onsite at the home or workplace and send the vital information directly to the hospital, saving precious treatment time.

The new heart attack diagnosis system, called Lifenet™, allows paramedics to capture a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) immediately and send photographs of the heart’s activity in real time via cell phone to the hospital’s emergency room “Lifenet™ Receiving Station.” Because the pre-hospital ECG is conducted at the scene of the heart attack, patients won’t have to wait until after arriving to the hospital for the diagnosis of heart attack to be made. Instead, the patient is taken directly to the cardiac catheterization laboratory to have their blocked artery opened immediately upon arrival to the hospital to relieve the heart attack.

The Lifenet process, which usually takes less than one minute, can save more than an hour in the total time it takes to receive treatment of a heart attack. This is also know an door-to-balloon time. In 2009, The Cincinnati Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) recognized The Christ Hospital with the Bronze Healthcare Quality Award for “Minimizing Time to Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) in a Community Hospital.”

What are the treatment options for a heart attack?
There are a variety of procedures that can treat and stabilize the lining of the coronary arteries. These procedures include:

For more information about cardiovascular services at The Christ Hospital or if you are looking for a heart specialist, please call 513-585-1000.