Healing Hearts, Minds and Spirits
At AdventHealth Porter, we work together every day to strengthen hearts — and spirits — with comprehensive and compassionate cardiovascular care. From diagnostic testing to advanced treatment options, our board-certified specialists are dedicated to whole-person healing.
With national accreditations, a collaborative team of renowned experts, state-of-the-art technology and a personal approach to care that treats your whole person, we’ll help you manage your cardiovascular condition and get back to the life you love.
We’re here to help you find the right cardiologist or a location that’s convenient for you.
High-Quality Colorado Heart and Vascular Care
Our cardiologists and cardiology specialists work diligently to provide the best cardiac care and deliver excellent patient outcomes when it matters most. Our experts spot illnesses early and respond to heart failure with award-winning speed and precision.
- Advanced Technology for Comprehensive Cardiac Care
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AdventHealth Porter is your home for advanced heart and vascular care, with technologies and services like:
64-Slice Computed Tomography (CT) Scanning
By using coronary computed tomography angiogram (coronary CTA or 64-slice CT) imaging technology, we can assess important heart health information in patients who may not suspect they have heart disease.
Our experts may recommend testing for people who have risk factors for heart disease, such as:
- Family history
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Inconclusive stress tests
- Unusual heart-related symptoms
Until recently, at-risk patients may have only been considered for heart scans such as calcium scoring tests or electron-beam computed tomography (EBCT), which can only measure the hard plaque in the blood vessel, not the soft plaque in the vessel wall.
In seconds, the cardiac 64-slice CT scanner takes multiple X-rays of the heart and its arteries, giving us a picture of the heart that was only available previously with an invasive procedure involving a catheter. Not only can the 3D images tell us if someone has heart disease, but they can also reveal the level of heart damage, even in its earliest stages. This level of detail gives us strong indicators of how to reduce the risk of serious heart disease.
Endovascular Hybrid-Operating Suite
Our skilled surgeons can simultaneously perform traditional open and minimally invasive vascular surgeries in our endovascular hybrid-operating suite. This lifesaving combination of minimally invasive endovascular procedures with open surgical methods leads to shorter hospital stays, faster recovery times, less cosmetic damage, less scarring and better patient outcomes.
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)
Patients with life-threatening heart problems may benefit from ECMO, a procedure that draws blood from a large vein in the body and passes it through a machine that adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide. The blood is then returned to the patient’s body through the circulatory system. This process substitutes the functions of the heart (for pumping) and provides long-term support for breathing and heart function after standard treatments have failed.
TactiCath™ Quartz Ablation Catheter
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) can be caused by electrical signals in the thin band of muscle surrounding the pulmonary veins. It can be corrected with a pulmonary vein isolation procedure, which destroys the small tissue area by utilizing radiofrequency energy. The TactiCath™ Quartz Ablation Catheter can reduce procedure time for pulmonary vein (PV) isolation. And by using its pressure sensor capability, the catheter creates precision throughout the procedure, allowing for lower AFib re-occurrence rates and fewer tissue lesions.
- Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Treatment
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Your AFib treatment may include treatments like:
Tests at Our Electrophysiology Lab
Our electrophysiology lab provides cardiologists and other heart specialists with precise information about heart rhythm problems through various minimally invasive treatments and tests, such as cardiac ablation procedures, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) and pacemakers.
Fluoroless Ablations
Catheter ablation of AFib has traditionally been done with fluoroscopy technology, which poses radiation risks. Our cardiac team performs cardiac ablations well under the national average for fluoroscopy and X-ray time and even performs some of our AFib ablations without it.
Hybrid Ablation
Our first step to treating AFib is usually with medication, like beta-blockers or antiarrhythmic drugs. But when medicines aren’t effective, the next step is catheter-based ablation, delivering radiofrequency energy into the heart to destroy tissue that’s triggering irregular rhythms.
Hybrid ablation involves two procedures separated by six to 12 weeks:
- Thoracoscopic maze: First, a cardiothoracic surgeon performs ablation on the outside of the heart with a minimally invasive surgical procedure called a thoracoscopic maze, which is achieved through keyhole incisions made between the ribs on both sides.
- Catheter ablation: Then, about 12 weeks later, an electrophysiologist performs catheter ablation inside the heart, which has a 60 to 80% success rate in patients without heart abnormalities who have had AFib for less than two years.
WATCHMAN™ Procedure
The WATCHMAN™ device is a unique technology used to reduce the risk of blood clots in the left atrial appendage of patients with AFib, most of whom are at high risk for a stroke caused by these clots.
Permanently implanted in the left atrial appendage of the heart, the WATCHMAN™ device prevents blood clots from entering the bloodstream. The procedure is done by placing a delivery catheter through a vein in the leg that reaches the heart. The physician then pushes the WATCHMAN™ device through the delivery catheter, where it opens and is permanently implanted in the left atrial appendage.
- Cardiac Catheterization Lab Services
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In the cardiac cath lab, we perform lifesaving heart catheterization designed to open clogged arteries. Heart catheterization is a low-risk, 30- to 60-minute procedure to diagnose or treat cardiovascular disease.
Through minimally invasive intervention, our team can correct coronary artery blockages with balloon angioplasty and coronary artery stenting, including percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, coronary artery stenting and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
Some of the cardiovascular and heart conditions that heart catheterization can identify and potentially treat are:
- Cardiomyopathy
- Congenital heart disease
- Coronary artery disease
- Fractional flow reserve (FFR)
- Heart valve problems
- Cardiac Surgery
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Our board-certified surgeons offer a full range of heart surgery procedures for patients throughout Colorado. Our cardiothoracic and cardiovascular surgeons, anesthesiologists, cardiac nurses and specialized medical technicians work together to provide patients with better surgical outcomes by combining advanced cardiovascular treatment technologies with surgical expertise not readily found at other facilities in the region.
- Certified Stroke Center
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The expert doctors, advanced technology and efficient processes at our Certified Stroke Center mean we're prepared to deliver advanced stroke care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Equipped with telestroke treatment capabilities, our specialists can connect with patients via videoconference, so a rapid assessment can narrow the time necessary to minimize permanent injury to the brain.
- Accredited Chest Pain Center
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Our streamlined, rapid-response cardiac treatment provides lifesaving care to people experiencing chest pain and heart attack. Diagnostic and treatment speed are essential to save lives in a cardiac emergency. When a patient arrives in our emergency room with chest pain symptoms, EMS follows a cardiac-specific protocol while emergency nurses and doctors begin testing, evaluation and, if necessary, immediate transfer to our catheterization lab.
We also provide cardiac short-stay care for low-risk chest pain patients who need cardiac care and monitoring without the expense, diagnostic exposure or considerations of a full hospital stay.
As an accredited Chest Pain Center, we maintain a strict set of criteria aimed at:
- Monitoring patients when it isn’t certain they are having a heart attack to ensure that they are not sent home too quickly or needlessly admitted to the hospital
- Reducing the time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis and treatment
- Treating patients more quickly during the critical window of time when the integrity of the heart muscle can be preserved
- Diagnostic Testing
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Early detection is an important way to identify abnormalities. With our robust offering of cardiac testing, we can locate and treat conditions more quickly than ever. Our board-certified cardiologists and radiologists lean on years of mastering cardiac screening to diagnose heart disease and other medical conditions.
Using state-of-the-art technology and the expertise of a comprehensive cardiovascular treatment team, we perform diagnostic procedures and testing, including:
- Calcium-scoring heart scans
- Cardiac catheterization
- Cardiac imaging studies
- Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT)
- Computed tomography (CT) calcium score
- Coronary computed tomography angiogram (CTA)
- Echocardiogram
- Electrocardiogram (EKG)
- Lipid or advanced lipid testing
- Sleep studies
- Stress testing
- Treadmill testing
- Women’s Heart Health
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Cold sweats, unusual tiredness, anxiety and loss of appetite might sound like symptoms of hormone changes or getting older. But they can actually be signs of heart disease, the leading cause of death in women. Because women experience heart disease differently than men, we believe treatment should also be different. And that starts with care led by a highly skilled cardiologist who understands women’s heart health.
Cardiovascular Procedures We Perform
- Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair
- Aneurysm Repair
- Aortic Valve Repair and Replacement Surgery
- Atherosclerosis Atherectomy and Endarterectomy
- Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) Surgery
- Balloon and Drug-Eluting Stent
- Carotid Endarterectomy (CEA)
- Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Surgery
- Coronary Artery Calcium Screening
- Cox-Maze Procedure
- Heart Valve Repair and Replacement
- Hyperhidrosis
- Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) Filter Insertion
- Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Surgery
- Permanent Pacemaker Implants
- Robotic-Assisted Cardiac Surgery
- Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Repair
- Transluminal Balloon and Stent Angioplasty
- Varicose Vein Surgery
- Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) Surgery
Colorado Heart and Vascular Care Locations
Let’s Keep Your Heart Beating Strong
When something’s off with your heart or vascular health, you want answers. So do we. Our experienced cardiovascular specialists will listen to your concerns, work together across specialties to give you an accurate diagnosis and build a treatment plan completely customized to you. Reach out to us today to get started.