Diagnostic & Therapeutic Research

Seton Medical Center, through the research efforts of the San Francisco Heart Institute, is a pioneering center for increasing the accuracy and sensitivity of important diagnostic tests, developing, and evaluating of new procedures for treating cardiovascular disease, and testing new interventional devices and pharmacologic therapies.

Examples of Ground-Breaking Research conducted at Seton include:

Leaders in Cardiovascular Care
The physicians at the San Francisco Heart Institute are the leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area in the use of:

• Off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery
• Minimal incision techniques used during replacement and repair of cardiac valves— these incisions in the chest are quite small and are preferable to a full sternotomy, in which the sternal bone is cut and the chest is forced open for access.
• Minimally invasive techniques to harvest veins from the leg that are used during coronary artery bypass surgery— these techniques eliminate the long incision that is standard for obtaining the vein.
• Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor— drugs that inhibit the formation of blood clots that can lead to heart attack and death during catheterization procedures.
• Stented grafts to treat aneurysms of the aorta(the major blood vessel leaving the heart) — these devices are inserted through an artery in the leg, thus avoiding a more dangerous open chest surgical procedure.
• New stent technology used in the catheterization laboratory

For more information about cardiac and vascular diseases, diagnostic services & treatment options, visit the San Francisco Heart Institute web page.

Leading center in the country in:

• Providing comprehensive services to cardiac surgical patients, including experts from the Northern California Diabetes Institute and the Wound Care Center.
• Utilizing clinical data to track patients who have had cardiovascular procedures. This database has longitudinal follow-up on every patient treated in the catheterization laboratory and cardiac operating room at Seton, including the first patient who had coronary balloon angioplasty in the United States.

The San Francisco Heart Institute is the home for The Journal of Invasive Cardiology, a leading journal in cardiovascular treatment and also the sponsoring organization for the International Andreas Gruentzig Society, an organization of cardiovascular healthcare professionals and industry representatives that promotes the development of innovations in cardiovascular treatment.