Physicians

Department of Cardiology, IKEM is a specialised cardiology centre that provides expert health care for patients with cardiovascular diseases in the Czech Republic. It is an integral part of the IKEM Heart Centre.

Interventional cardiology team is available non-stop for treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction using direct percutaneous coronary intervention (mechanical opening of occluded coronary arteries supported by metallic scaffold – stent). It performs also other catheter-based diagnostic and therapeutic procedures such as catheter closures of atrial or ventricular septal defect and percutaneous implants of heart valves. Some diagnostic procedures could be performed as one-day cases.

Arrhythmology specialists perform all types of catheter ablations for cardiac arrhythmias (catheter-based therapeutic procedures that allow cure of various types of heart rhythm disorders), especially ablations for atrial fibrillation of ventricular tachyarrhythmias. It belongs to several top world centres with experience in catheter ablation supported by robotic navigation. Arrhythmia unit is a centre with longstanding tradition and experience in implantations of cardiac pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.

Noninvasive cardiology team disposes of all available modern diagnostic techniques used in cardiovascular diagnostics. It performs around 18000 echocardiographic studies each year.

Heart failure unit provides specialised care to patients with heart failure, including transplant programme. It follows patients after heart transplantation. Newly, it starts to follow patients with implantable mechanical support pumps.

Department of cardiology, IKEM is one of the 2 centres certified to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Acute cardiology division replaced former coronary care unit as it takes care of a broad spectrum of acute conditions in cardiology and not only of patients with acute coronary syndromes. More and more patients are treated for acute decompensation of heart failure, life-threatening arrhythmias and other conditions. Emergency unit is a part of acute cardiology division that is used for differential diagnostics of acute conditions, and for emergencies or elective electrical cardioversion.

Both two clinical wards provide clinical basis for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and for treatment of many cardiovascular diseases.

From scientific point of view, Department of Cardiology, IKEM belongs to the most prestigious Czech research centres in the field of cardiology. It is involved many research projects and multicentre clinical studies that explore modern treatment approaches or technologies. Department of Cardiology, IKEM is ranked among top European cardiology centres.

Department of Cardiology, IKEM serves also as educational centre for both pregraduate and postgraduate students. It organizes many educational meetings including live demonstrations from cath labs every year. Through cooperation with media, Department of Cardiology, IKEM contributes to popularization of cardiology and cardiovascular diseases.

These web pages are intended to familiarize you with the department, its main programs and standards of health care. They should help you to make your patients to become our shared patients. We will welcome your relevant suggestions that may contribute to further refinement of our mutual co-operation.

Professor Josef Kautzner, MD, PhD
Head, Department of Cardiology