Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI)
Also called heart attack, usually caused by a blocked coronary artery, which prevents blood and oxygen from nourishing the heart muscle.

Angiogram
A series of x-rays of the blood vessels in the heart taken in rapid sequence following the injection of a contrast substance into the blood stream.

Angioplasty
Performed in the catheterization lab in which a catheter-guided balloon is used to open a narrowed coronary artery. A stent (a wire-mesh tube that expands to hold the artery open) is usually placed at the narrowed section during angioplasty.

Aorta
The large arterial trunk that carries blood from the heart to be distributed by branch arteries through the body.

Arteries
The thick, muscular tubes that carry blood away from the heart.

Bi-VAD
Bi-Ventricular Assist Device. Supports both sides of the heart.

Blood vessels
An extensive network of flexible tubes that carries blood to and from the heart and throughout the body. The blood vessels are the transportation system of the body. The blood vessels include arteries, capillaries and veins.

Bridge-to-recovery
A medical device that can support the heart until it is able to recover and operate on its own.

Bridge-to-transplant
A medical device that can temporarily function in place of a heart until a suitable heart transplant becomes available.

CABG (pronounced “Cabbage”)
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting. A heart surgery procedure that treats the symptoms of coronary artery disease. CABG surgery reroutes (or ‘bypasses’) the blood flow around the blockages in the coronary arteries, restoring blood flow to the heart muscle itself.

Cannulae
Tubes that connect the heart and blood vessels to a mechanical pump.

Cardiac Power Output (CPO)
CPO remains the number one correlate to mortality in heart attack patients. Baseline CPO determines the survival of patients because increased CPO reduces overall mortality and heart assist technologies provide a direct increase in this baseline function. In addition to increased CPO, heart assist pumps reduce the work  of the heart muscle, providing heart muscle support and protection.

Console
The part of a circulatory support system that drives the blood pumps, thus allowing the blood to flow through its normal cycle. The console is powered by electricity and has a back-up battery.

Cardiogenic shock (CS)
A condition that often takes place after a heart attack when cells in the heart start to die, due to the failure of the heart to pump an adequate amount of blood to the heart.

Catheterization (cath) lab
A facility in most hospitals in which minimally invasive cardiac procedures, like stent placement and angioplasty take place, most often by a cardiologist via a catheter. The lab is often one of the first stops in the hospital for patients experiencing cardiac problems, before they move to the surgical suite where more invasive procedures, like VAD placement or cardiac surgery, take place.  There are approximately 1,600 U.S. hospitals with cath labs.

CE-Mark
The approval of manufacturing and quality systems identified with the ISO 9001 certification. This label allows a medical device company to commercialize products in Europe.

CMS
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of Health & Human Services (HHS), the largest payer of healthcare in the U.S. Patients over 65 or with disabilities qualify for coverage from the U.S. Government.

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)
A disease in which plaque deposits containing cholesterol atherosclerosis and fat globules are deposited within the arteries.

Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT)

A CRT device paces the heart (using the same small electrical impulses as a standard pacemaker) both in the right and the left ventricles in order to resynchronize their contraction and attempt to increase the cardiac output.

Destination therapy
A permanent implant. It can consist of a device or a transplant to assist or replace the heart.

Ejection Fraction (EF)
The fraction of blood pumped out of ventricles with each heart beat. The term ejection fraction applies to both the right and left ventricles.  A normal heart’s ejection fraction may be between 55 and 70.

Heart failure
Heart failure is almost always a chronic, long-term condition, although it can sometimes develop suddenly. This condition may affect the right side, the left side, or both sides of the heart. As the heart’s pumping action is lost, blood may back up into other areas of the body, including: the liver, the gastrointestinal tract and extremities (right-sided heart failure), the lungs (left-sided heart failure). Class 4 heart failure is the condition when a patient is exhausted, short of breath or fatigued when just sitting still or lying down in bed.

Infarct (-ion)
An area of tissue death (necrosis) due to a local lack of oxygen[1] caused by obstruction of the tissue’s blood supply.

Inotropes
Inotropes are non-habit-forming medications that strengthen the contractions of the heart. Digoxin is an example

Interventional cardiology
A specialized area of medicine that focuses on diagnostics, treatment and management of patients with cardiovascular disease.
Intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP)
IABP is a medical device that works in the Aorta to improve blood flow to the body.

Ischemic
A decrease in the blood and oxygen supply to an organ or tissue in the body.

Left atrium
Receives oxygen enriched blood from the lungs and passes this on to the left ventricle.

Left ventricle
Receives blood from the left atrium and pumps it to the aorta, supplying the entire body with blood.

Myocardial revascularization
Restoring blood flow to the myocardium (heart muscle).

Myocarditis
Inflammation of the heart muscle brought on by a virus or bacteria, which may even result from allergic reaction.

New York Heart Association Classification (NYHA)
Remains a standard classification of the condition and physical limitations of heart disease. Publications identify that a sustained improvement in NYHA Class leads to improved patient Quality of Life, longer term survival and lower costs per patient.

Open heart centers
Hospitals that perform open heart surgery such as valve repair or replacement, coronary artery bypass, or any other non-transplant procedure.

Paracorporeal
Refers to “outside the body,” describes the location of the ABIOMED Ventricular Assist Device lying on top of the abdomen.

Percutaneous
Percutaneous pertains to any medical procedure where access to inner organs or other tissue is done via needle-puncture of the skin, rather than by using an “open” approach where inner organs or tissue are exposed. In general, percutaneous refers to the access modality of a medical procedure, whereby a medical device is introduced into a patient’s blood vessel via a needle stick.

Pulmonary artery
Receives blood from the right ventricle and passes it to the lungs where it is enriched with oxygen.

Post Cardiotomy Cardiogenic Shock (PCCS)
Cardiogenic shock that takes place during open heart surgery, often as a result the patient cannot come off heart-lung support machine.

Quality of Life (QOL)
The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals and societies.

Right atrium
Receives oxygen depleted blood from the body and passes it on to the right ventricle.

Right ventricle
Receives blood from the right atrium and pumps it through the pulmonary artery into the lungs where it is enriched with oxygen.

Sternotomy
A type of surgical procedure in which a vertical inline incision is made along the sternum, after which the sternum itself is divided, or “cracked”. This procedure provides access to the heart and lungs for surgical procedures such as heart transplant, corrective surgery for congenital heart defects (CHDs), or coronary artery bypass surgery.

Transplant center
Hospitals that perform heart transplants. About 2,200 transplants are performed each year at approximately 100 centers in the U.S.

VAD
Ventricular Assist Device. A ventricular assist device (VAD) is a mechanical pump device that is surgically implanted or attached externally with a cannulae. It helps maintain the pumping ability of a heart that cannot effectively work on its own. They can be LVAD (left VAD), RVAD (right) or BiVAD (both side).

Valves
Flap-like structures in the heart that open and close to let the blood flow in only one direction. The four heart valves are: the tricuspid, the pulmonary or pulmonic (in the right side of the heart), the mitral and the aortic valve (in the left side).

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