At the Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital, we offer advanced facilities and equipment to provide sophisticated non-invasive methods and technologies to diagnose heart disease. Our 17 board-certified cardiologists and nationally accredited technologists will quickly and accurately diagnose your condition so you can move on to treatment -- all while offering a quality patient experience. Non-invasive techniques are typically safe and painless, and allow you to resume normal activities almost immediately.

Leaders in Their Field

Other physicians draw on the expertise of our non-invasive cardiology professionals in addition to patients. For example, a physician on our staff wrote practice guidelines for ultrasound that are used throughout the medical community. Our echocardiography labs have served as Core Lab for numerous research trials, and in one trial, our labs provided the echocardiographic guidance for the nonsurgical repair of heart valves.

Physicians You can Trust

All of our vascular and echocardiography labs are accredited by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL) and the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiographic Laboratories (ICAEL), respectively. Accreditation is granted only to those facilities that are found to be providing quality patient care. Patients can rest assured that accredited facilities have been carefully critiqued on all aspects of their operations considered relevant by medical experts in the field of vascular and echocardiographic technology. Patients can rely on accreditation as an indication that the facility where their examination will be performed has proven a commitment to providing quality testing for the diagnosis of heart and vascular disease.

We provide a broad range of non-invasive cardiovascular services, including:

• Exercise stress testing: A test that assists in identifying electrocardiographic (ECG and EKG) changes during exercise, such as walking on a treadmill or riding a stationary bicycle.
• Holter monitor: A Holter monitor is a portable ECG machine that is worn for 1 to 3 days. It constantly monitors a person's heart and records the heart's rhythms for later analysis by the physician.
• Metabolic stress testing: A test used to measure the performance of the heart and lungs while they are under physical stress. The test involves walking on a treadmill or pedaling a stationary bike at increasing levels of difficulty while being closely monitored. A mouthpiece collects and analyzes the air that has been breathed in and out.
• Pharmacological/exercise stress echocardiogram: A stress echocardiogram is an integration of ultrasound imaging and the exercise stress testing that measures how the heart functions while walking on a treadmill or riding a stationary bicycle. Medication can be used to stimulate the exercise for patients who are unable to walk on the treadmill or ride the bicycle.
• Transthoracic echocardiogram: A test that uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of cardiac structures and examines the function of the heart.
• Transesophageal echocardiogram: A different approach to an echocardiogram where a specially designed probe is introduced into the esophagus to obtain very clear images of the heart. It is the preferred imaging method when transthoracic echocardiogram views are suboptimal or when structures cannot be seen with a transthoracic echocardiogram and must be examined.

Top of Page