NewYork-Presbyterian. The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell.

Clinical Services at The Allen Hospital

Cardiology

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Cardiology at The Allen Hospital

The Division of Cardiology is part of The Allen Hospital's Department of Medicine. The cardiology team at The Allen Hospital is led by board-certified attending cardiologists who are all members of the full-time teaching faculty of Columbia University. We provide a comprehensive program of in-patient and out-patient care, intensive care, consultation, and non-invasive cardiac diagnostic testing to patients from Riverdale, Marble Hill, and Northern Manhattan.

The Allen Hospital & NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia

The Allen Hospital in-patient units, intensive care unit and operating rooms can handle most acute medical problems, but patients requiring transfer to the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia campus for highly specialized interventions – such as cardiac catherization, cardiac surgery, or chest surgery – can receive continuing care from their Allen cardiologist, since we work at both sites.

Patients with acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) are triaged immediately by the staff of The Allen Hospital Emergency Department who, by special arrangement, can transfer patients directly to the interventional cardiology laboratory at the NYP/Columbia campus for placement of a coronary stent, if needed to open a blocked artery.

Cardiac Diagnostic Center

Our newly renovated Cardiology Diagnostic Center provides comprehensive, noninvasive testing for both inpatients and outpatients who have been referred by their physicians. State-of-the-art equipment is available for echocardiography, Holter monitoring, and various modes of stress testing, including treadmill and pharmacologic testing with or without radionuclide injection.

Tests performed at the Cardiac Diagnostic Center include:

• Stress echocardiogram
• Nuclear stress testing
• Echocardiogram
• Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE)
• Holter Monitoring

Convenient appointments are available in a very timely manner, and most insurance plans are accepted. The Center will report the results to physicians within 24 hours of the test.

Clinical Cardiovascular Research Laboratory for the Elderly (CCRLE)

The Clinical Cardiovascular Research Laboratory for the Elderly is dedicated to investigating how normative age-related changes in the heart affect the development of illnesses that disproportionately affect the elderly.

CCRLE performs Tilt Table Testing for any patients who present with unexplained loss of consciousness (i.e. syncope). In addition to this clinical service, the laboratory maintains research protocols investigating a variety of conditions. Current areas of study include:

• Syncope (fainting)
• Cardiovascular causes of falls
• Heart failure, particularly those patients with a normally pumping heart
• Isolated systolic hypertension
• Infiltrative disorders of the heart (amyloidosis, iron overload)
• The effects of chemotherapy on heart function

The laboratory is equipped with the sophisticated noninvasive techniques including:

• Baroreflex sensitivity and other evaluation of autonomic reflexes
• Evaluations of vascular stiffness
• 3-Dimensional Echocardiography
• Color and tissue Doppler for evaluation of diastolic cardiac function
• Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
• Measurement of plasma volume
• Measures of the properties of veins

These tests are performed within the parameters of each research protocol, and as such patients must be enrolled in order to receive them at this laboratory. Eligible patients may be referred by their physicians or through The Allen Hospital's HealthOutreach Program. Some protocols also require the participation of healthy control subjects of all ages. For some studies financial remuneration is offered to offset the costs of participation. For more information about current protocols and patient eligibility, please contact CCRLE at 212-932-4537.

About Our Physicians

All Allen Hospital physicians are also on the staff of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia, one of the country's major medical centers. In addition, each of these physicians is on faculty of the highly regarded Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. This means that patients experience a level of care found in a leading academic medical center while in the intimate setting of a community hospital.

Our Physicians

• Andressa Borges, MD, FACC
• Kung-Ming Jan, MD, FACC
• Gerald W. Neuberg, MD, FACC
• David I. Sahar, MD, FACC