By Jim Kelly: Chronicle Journal

Thursday, March 20, 2008

It was 20 years ago that the first patients in Thunder Bay underwent a procedure known as cardiac catheterization. Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre celebrated two decades of cardiac catheterization Wednesday with the announcement that more than 18,000 patients had undergone the procedure since its introduction in February 1988.

The procedure is used to diagnose and treat certain heart conditions. A long, thin, flexible tube called a catheter is put into a blood vessel in the arm, groin or neck and threaded to the heart. Through the catheter, doctors can perform diagnostic tests and treatments on the heart. Since 1988, cardiac patients no longer travel to other centres for cardiac catheterization.

Last October, Northwestern Ontario‘s first angioplasties were performed at Regional‘s cardiac catheterization lab, the introduction of which allows patients to have the procedure done close to home, saving expenses and stress that would have been incurred in travelling to southern Ontario. Coronary angioplasty is a medical procedure in which a balloon is used to open a blockage in a coronary artery narrowed by atherosclerosis. This procedure improves blood flow to the heart. Atherosclerosis is a condition in which plaque builds up on the inner walls of the arteries.

Cardiologist Dr. Frank Nigro said Wednesday the advances in cardiac care is great news for patients in the region. “We have one of the highest incidences of heart failure in Ontario, in fact, all of Canada,” Nigro said. “With primary angioplasty being available as well as elective angioplasty, not only will the quality of life of the patients be enhanced but also their survival benefit.” Nigro said a primary angioplasty can modify the size of a heart attack. “That‘s one of the greatest burdens of heart disease,” he said. “The larger the heart attack the greater likelihood the patient will develop heart failure.”

Cardiologist Dr. Chris Lai said Regional can do about 250 life-saving cardiac procedures a year.

And a second cardiac catheterization lab will expand the capability to more than 500 per year. Nigro said the second lab could be up and running by 2009, providing the funding is available. The hospital has submitted a proposal for the lab to the Ministry of Health.

Lai was a member of the original cardiac cath team which also included assistants Marcella Uhryniuk and Maureen Caccamo, who are still employed at the hospital.

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