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Cardiology

The Cardiology Department at Culpeper Regional Hospital offers a comfortable outpatient setting for patients to receive a variety of cardiac tests.

The office is conveniently located near the Emergency and Admitting entrance, and flexible scheduling is available.

Testing offered by Cardiology measures various aspects of a patient's heart. Our services include, but are not limited to:

EKG/ECG

An electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) tests the heart's electrical activity as it beats. Electrodes (patches) are placed on the body and are connected to the ECG machine by wires. As the machine measures electrical impulses, the information is converted into wavy lines on grid paper. From this information, physicians evaluate the heart's activity.

Stress Testing

A stress test measures the heart's response to the stress of physical activity and can detect problems with heart rhythm or blood supply to the heart.

Treadmill Stress Testing

A treadmill stress test (also called an exercise ECG, stress ECG, exercise tolerance test, or treadmill exercise test) is designed to measure the heart's response to the stress of physical activity. This type of stress test is useful to diagnose the cause of chest pain and discomfort; to determine the level of heart function in people with heart disease; to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments, such as medications or heart procedures (surgery or catheterization); and/or to look for abnormal heart rhythms that may develop during exercise and determine the level of exercise that is right for the patient.

Nuclear Stress Testing

Nuclear stress testing is a test to determine if there is damage to the heart muscle using a radioactive substance or tracer that is injected via an IV. This type of test offers clinicians a wide range of information about the heart, including heart contractility (ability to squeeze blood out and through the blood stream), the amount of blood supplied to the heart muscle, and if parts of the heart muscle are damaged.

Medication Stress Testing

If the patient cannot physically perform the exercise portion of the nuclear stress test, a physician may recommend a medication scan. Medication is injected via an IV which causes the coronary arteries to dilate (widen) as they do during exercise.