MARY CHRISTOPHER
Observer-Dispatch

UTICA -- The Mohawk Valley Heart Institute recently completed the final component to make it a full service cardiac program with the launch of an electrophysiology service lab at St. Elizabeth Medical Center.

With the addition of an electrophysiology lab, Mohawk Valley patients who were previously referred to Syracuse and Albany can now stay in the Utica area for treatment, St. Elizabeth's Director of Critical and Cardiac Catheterization Dr. Brian Gaffney said.

More than 400,000 people nationwide annually are victims of sudden cardiac death. If a person survives a cardiac ailment, then there is high risk for it to occur again.

"That's where we come in," Gaffney said. "More people are surviving after seeing (an electrophysiology specialist) who implants something internally."

Electrophysiology is the study of the electrical conduction system of the heart. It diagnoses an abnormal heart rhythm, called arrhythmia, pinpointing the exact location of electrical signal problems.

It is performed by catheter ablation, which finds the source of an arrhythmia and offers treatments including the implementation of various types of pacemakers and automated defibrillators.

New technology used in electrophysiology is smaller and lasts longer than past devices.

Dr. Robert Svenson is director of the heart institute's electrophysiology program.

"Think of the heart as a pump and it's surrounding electrical system makes it run," Svenson said. "(Procedures are) similar to a heart catheterization without dye, but electrodes are used instead."

Patients with the most serious cases will be given a defibrillator and then possibly special medications, he said.

Other procedures, such as bi-ventricular pacing, where both heart chambers are paced at the same rhythm, and radio frequency ablation, a burning technique used to make an extra pathway to the heart, are done in the electrophysiology lab.

Svenson's goal is to perform 20 procedures per week.

For years, Eric Shambo, 39, could feel his heart beat abnormally -- racing at times.

"It would wear me right out sometimes," he said.

The Copenhagen resident waited until the heart institute implemented the electrophysiology program and had a procedure done five weeks ago. Svenson used radiowaves to burn out scar tissue around Shambo's heart.

"I'm happy with what was done ... everything was taken care of properly," he said.

The Mohawk Valley Heart Institute, a cooperative program between Faxton-St. Luke's Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Medical Center, offers a complete program of cardiac diagnostic and treatment options, which include cardiac catheterization, angioplasty, artery bypass grafts, cardiac surgeries and cardiac rehabilitation.

Adding electrophysiology is the last major program the heart institute will implement, but medical directors will continue to fine tune the services it provides.

"This is the final link," Gaffney said. "It truly completes the program."

AT A GLANCE:

Electrophysiology: The study of the electrical conduction system of the heart.

* It diagnoses an abnormal heart rhythm, called arrhythmia, pinpointing the exact location of electrical signal problems.