Invasive Cardiac Imaging: the Cath Lab

Abstract

Cath labs (interventional cardiology [IC] suites) are real-time, decisionmaking environments in which lack of fluency can be troublesome not only for the non–native English-speaking cardiologist, but also for anybody else in the laboratory, the patient included. This is the reason why we have dedicated a complete unit to interventional cardiology. When you enter an IC suite, your listening skills are much more important than are your fluency; nobody is expecting you to say too much, but everybody takes for granted that you understand them, and that is not always true. You will find no difficulty when the conversation is on the pathology itself; in the first few days many jargon terms, acronyms, and abbreviations can be tricky but with a bit of help, you will soon feel reasonably confident. If you have not worked in an American hospital, you probably do not know what a SOAP note is. SOAP stands for subjective comments on the patient, objective findings, assessment, and plan, and SOAP note refers to the standard follow-up chart entries. Moreover, many procedures are done nowadays at the cath lab by interventional cardiologists, electrophysiologists, and vascular surgeons. Primary coronary angioplasty, in the myocardial infarction scenario is an emergency that gives no time to language inaccuracies, and it has become the keystone of interventional cardiology practice around the world. But “coronary angiography” language is needed only by interventionalists. Percutaneous valvulotomy, closure devices for atrial and ventricular septal defects, treatment of patent ductus arteriosus, and septal embolization for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are among the armamentarium of interventional cardiologists. Study and treatment of arrhythmias using catheters and ablators, implantation of electrical devices as pacemakers and defibrillators, need other language skills completely different from those used by interventional cardiologists performing angioplasty and stenting. One of the main problems of non–native English-speaking interventional cardiologists working in English-speaking cath labs is the lack of knowledge of basic vocabulary, jargon terminology, acronyms, abbreviations, and set phrases.