Bradford Teaching Hospitals has become one of only a handful of centres to offer a specialist test for heart patients.
The first patients at Bradford Royal Infirmary have now had the benefit of microvascular testing for coronary spasm – chest pain caused by tightening of a heart artery.
Consultant Cardiologist Dr Shabnam Rashid said:
Microvascular testing and testing for coronary spasm involves a special procedure which provides information about the small arteries of the heart that cannot be conventionally seen by a coronary angiogram.
In patients who have microvascular angina, the small arteries do not dilate as normal and subsequently patients experience chest pain. Patients may think that they are having a heart attack which may result in a hospital admission for treatment of a heart attack and being prescribed drugs they may not need.
Microvascular testing looks at the small arteries in much more detail and if microvascular angina is diagnosed, then the patient is prescribed the correct therapy.
Dr Rashid added that test used a drug called Acetylcholine, which was directly infused into the patient’s heart arteries using a catheter that is inserted into the patient’s arm.
The whole procedure takes around an hour with time for the patient to recover afterwards, and the test can be done as an outpatient procedure so there is no need to admit the patient.
At most centres, the infusion, which has to be diluted approximately 20 times before it is infused into the patient’s heart, is made up by pharmacists but here in Bradford, our own Cardiology nurses are preparing it.
We are really pleased that we are now able to offer this test as it is making a real difference to patients with microvascular angina and/or coronary spasm.
One of the patients to undergo the test was 57-year-old Andrew Jardine of Bradford, who said:
I’d had heart problems previously and was fitted with a stent but then recently I began to suffer with chest pains and I was really worried I was having a heart attack.
When I was told I could have this new test and then they said it was just my heart having spasms which would pass, I was so relieved.
I wasn’t anxious about having the test at all. It has given me such peace of mind. The staff here are just wonderful, absolutely brilliant. I am just amazed at what they can do.