Coronary artery disease, which causes heart attack, is the single leading cause of death in America, yet most people don't think about cardiac services until they have an emergency.

At ENMMC, our doctors, nurses and other health care professionals help patients achieve renewed cardiac health by offering a wide range of services for the prevention, diagnosis and rehabilitation of cardiac problems. Our sophisticated technology helps pinpoint cardiac problems, leading to the most appropriate treatment. Combined, these services are saving lives and improving the quality of life for our patients in southeastern New Mexico.

Our program is supported by:

• 24-hour emergency care.
• Cardiac catheterization (diagnostic) is a procedure in which a thin tube is threaded through blood vessels and into the heart to obtain direct X-ray images of the vessels of the heart.
• New Mexico's first 64-slice CT Scanner with a special module for performing CT-Angiography, a minimally invasive alternative to catheterization.
• Cardiac ultrasound.
• Cardioversion involves electrical stimulation to stabilize the heart rhythym.
• Electrocardiograms (EKG) record the electrical impulses that reflect the heart muscle's contractions, telling physicians how well the heart is working and what type of rhythm the heart is in.
• Echocardiogram tests use ultrasound techniques to record a picture of the heart's motion, allowing physicians to detect abnormalities of the heart wall, valves, and the heart's large blood vessels, and to measure blood flow across the valves.
• Healing Hearts is a cardiac education and wellness program designed to improve cardiac services in our community.
• Holter monitoring uses a portable 24-hour digital monitoring device that detects irregular heart beats -- it's a 24-hour EKG.
• Intensive / coronary care unit has telemetry monitoring to continuously monitor the heart rhythm.
• Laboratory blood tests measure for cardiac markers released by damaged heart muscle
• Nuclear imaging, both stress and non-stress tests, uses radiotracers to form images that provide data and information about the heart.
• Pacemaker implantation involves surgically placing small devices into patients' chests to stabilize irregular heart beats.
• Stress testing is used to evaluate chest pain and the level of cardiac functioning. The patient walks on a treadmill at various grades and speeds while the electrical activity of his/her heart is measured.