The Mount Sinai Queens Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory (cath lab), part of the comprehensive heart services at the hospital, performs tests and procedures to diagnose and treat heart disease. Patients undergo minimally invasive procedures, which means no incision, a shorter hospital stay, and a quicker recovery.  Our highly trained and experienced doctors and nurses use state-of-the-art technology. This enables us to provide the quality of care you expect at an academic medical center—right here in Queens.

Our interventional cardiologists are part of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital, a nationally leading center for cardiac excellence. Our nurses have received national recognition for excellence in nursing from the American Nurse Credentialing Center’s Magnet Recognition Program. Together, our doctors and nurses work with specially trained technologists to bring you advanced and compassionate care.

Conditions We Treat

We treat a variety of heart conditions in the cath lab. These include:

• Angina: Chest pain caused by reduced or blocked blood flow to the heart. At first, angina pain is predictable (called stable angina). As it gets worse, the pain becomes less predictable; we call this unstable angina.
• Heart attack: A medical emergency that occurs when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the heart
• Heart failure: When the heart is too weak to properly pump blood or too stiff to properly relax
• Heart valve disease: When the heart valves do not work properly, causing blood to flow in the wrong direction or to block the flow of blood between heart chambers or out of the heart
• Peripheral arterial disease: Blockages in the arteries outside of the heart, also called PAD
• ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI): Acute heart attack with a completely blocked artery

Diagnostic Tests and Treatments We Offer

We perform a variety of diagnostic tests and treatments, such as:

• Diagnostic cardiac catheterization: Insertion of a long, thin tube up to the heart to measure the blood pressure in the aorta and the left ventricle (the main pumping chamber of the heart) as well as to take pictures of the coronary arteries (the blood vessels that provide blood and oxygen to the heart muscle) and the heart muscle pumping blood
• Right heart catheterization: Insertion of a long, thin tube into the right side of the heart and lungs to measure the internal blood pressures to help diagnose and plan treatment for patients with heart failure and high blood pressure in the lungs (pulmonary hypertension) 
• Acute myocardial infarction management: Treatment to restore blood flow back to the heart muscle
• Angioplasty and percutaneous coronary stenting: Use of a specialized balloon (angioplasty) to open a blocked artery and a mesh tube (stenting) to keep it open. All stents for the heart are coated with medicine that helps prevent re-narrowing of the blood vessel (medicated).  For the legs, we use both medicated and unmedicated balloons and stents.
• Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement: a device in the chest that detects a dangerous heartbeat problem and corrects it with electricity, to bring the heart back to a normal rhythm
• Orbital atherectomy: Procedure that uses a specialized instrument to break up hardened (calcified) blockages in the blood vessels of the heart and legs
• Thrombectomy: Treatment during a heart attack to remove the clot that is blocking blood flow to the heart muscle