Cardiology

To optimize the clinical management and treatment of patients at IRCCS ISMETT, our Heart Failure Unit provides access to the latest multidisciplinary treatment strategies.

The Heart Failure Unit is available for patients with heart failure who have responded poorly to conventional treatment and could become candidates for more complex interventions, such as a heart transplant or a VAD implant, commonly known as “artificial heart.” We manage patients referred by other centers during episodes of instability, typically requiring admission to the ICU or step-down unit. Outpatient monitoring is an integral and essential component of our program. Comprehensive, continuous management throughout every stage of the patient’s clinical pathway is crucial to the proper evaluation and treatment of heart failure.

The Unit provides a comprehensive assessment across all stages of heart failure, from relatively early disease requiring outpatient monitoring and medical therapy, to advanced heart failure requiring frequent hospitalization and highly complex interventions. Treatment strategies are tailored accordingly, in close collaboration with Cardiac Surgery, Interventional Cardiology, and other clinical services at IRCCS ISMETT, including Intensive Care, Pulmonology, Nephrology, and Psychology.

Our medical staff also performs noninvasive and invasive procedures (right heart catheterization, endomyocardial biopsy, biomarker markers, functional capacity testing, ultrafiltration) for prognostic stratification of heart failure and follow-up after a heart transplant.

Working in collaboration with the cardiology team, our pulmonology specialists manage patients with primary pulmonary hypertension according to the same patient care rationale described for heart failure.