CACVI patient resources
Cardiovascular and Vascular Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the words that come up in cardiac and vascular care: the tests, the procedures, the devices and the conditions. Each entry says what the term means, why it matters and where to read more on this site. Pick a letter to jump ahead.
A
Ablation (catheter ablation)
A treatment that destroys the small area of heart tissue firing the abnormal electrical signal behind an arrhythmia.
A thin catheter is threaded to the heart through a vein, usually from the groin, and the tip delivers heat or cold to the spot causing the irregular rhythm. Nothing is opened and most people go home the same day or the next. It is used most often for atrial fibrillation and for other fast rhythms that medication has not controlled. Some rhythms need a second session.
Amputation prevention
Coordinated treatment aimed at restoring blood flow and healing wounds before a limb has to be removed.
It combines opening the arteries that feed the foot, wound care and treating infection, and it depends on speed. Many amputations follow a wound that was treated as a skin problem for months while the circulation behind it was never measured. Early referral changes the outcome.
Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI)
A comparison of the blood pressure at your ankle with the pressure at your arm, used to detect narrowed leg arteries.
A normal ankle reading is close to the arm reading. When the ankle figure is meaningfully lower, blood is not reaching the leg as it should, which points to peripheral artery disease. It takes a few minutes, uses a cuff and a handheld probe, and involves no needles and no dye. It is painless.
Aortic aneurysm
A bulge in the wall of the aorta, the main artery leaving the heart, caused by a weakened section stretching under pressure.
Most cause no symptoms and are found on a scan ordered for another reason. Size and growth rate decide what happens next: small ones are watched with imaging, larger ones are repaired before the wall can tear. Repair is often done from inside the vessel rather than through open surgery. Size decides the treatment.
Aortic valve disease
Narrowing or leaking of the valve between the heart’s main pumping chamber and the aorta.
When the valve narrows, the heart works harder to push blood past it. When it leaks, blood falls back into the chamber it just left. Both are measured with an echocardiogram, and both can reach a point where replacing the valve is the treatment rather than watching it. Age is the usual cause.
Arrhythmia
Any heartbeat that is too fast, too slow or irregular.
It is an umbrella term, not a diagnosis. Some arrhythmias are harmless and common; others raise the risk of stroke or are immediately dangerous. What matters is which one it is, which is why capturing it on a recording is the first step.
Arterial leg ulcer
A wound on the leg or foot caused by arteries too narrowed to deliver the blood that healing requires.
It differs from a venous ulcer in where it appears and how it behaves: usually on the toes, heel or outer ankle, deep, dry and painful, and worse when the leg is raised. That distinction changes the treatment completely, so it matters more than it sounds. The pain is often worse at night.
Atrial fibrillation (AFib)
An irregular and often rapid heart rhythm in which the upper chambers quiver instead of beating cleanly.
Blood that is not moved along properly can pool and form a clot, and a clot that travels to the brain causes a stroke. That is why treatment has two separate jobs: controlling the rhythm or rate, and reducing the stroke risk. Some people feel it as palpitations; others have no symptoms at all and it is found on an EKG. Stroke risk is the real concern.
B
Biventricular defibrillator
A defibrillator that also paces both lower chambers of the heart so they contract together.
In some people with heart failure the two ventricles fall out of step, which makes an already weak pump less efficient. Pacing both sides re-synchronises them. The device still carries the defibrillator’s ability to stop a dangerous rhythm.
C
CardioMEMS
A pressure sensor placed in the pulmonary artery that reports rising pressures before heart failure symptoms appear.
The sensor is implanted through a vein and has no battery. The patient lies on a pillow-like reader at home each day and the readings go to the clinic. Pressure climbs days before breathlessness and swelling do, which gives time to change medication instead of admitting someone to hospital. Readings reach the clinic daily.
Cardiomyopathy
Disease of the heart muscle itself, which becomes enlarged, thickened or stiff and pumps less effectively.
It is a family of conditions rather than one, and the type matters: a dilated heart, a thickened one and a stiff one behave differently and are treated differently. An echocardiogram identifies which, and the ejection fraction measures how much function has been lost. Some forms run in families.
Carotid artery stenosis
Narrowing of the arteries in the neck that carry blood to the brain.
Plaque builds in the vessel wall and reduces flow, but the greater danger is a fragment breaking off and travelling to the brain. It often causes no symptoms until a mini-stroke or a stroke occurs, which is why it is screened with ultrasound in people with risk factors. It often causes no symptoms at all.
Carotid artery stenting
Opening a narrowed neck artery with a stent delivered by catheter, with a filter placed to catch any debris.
It is the endovascular alternative to surgically removing the plaque. The filter matters: the risk in treating a carotid is a fragment travelling to the brain, and the device is designed around preventing that. It is an alternative to surgery.
Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI)
A failure of the one-way valves in the leg veins, so blood falls back and pools instead of returning to the heart.
The pressure that builds causes swelling, aching, skin staining and eventually ulcers around the ankle. It is common, it is progressive, and it is frequently treated as a cosmetic problem until the skin changes appear. It does not resolve on its own.
Claudication
Cramping leg pain that appears on walking and stops within minutes of resting.
The pattern is the diagnosis: the muscle demands more blood when working, a narrowed artery cannot supply it, and the pain resolves as soon as demand falls. It is the most common first sign of peripheral artery disease, and it is frequently dismissed as ageing or arthritis for years before anyone measures the circulation. Rest relieves it.
Complex coronary intervention
Catheter treatment of coronary narrowings that other centres decline: long blockages, heavily calcified vessels, or arteries that have already been stented and narrowed again.
These cases need more than a balloon and a stent. They may require devices that shave or modify calcium, or temporary pump support while the work is done. The label describes difficulty, not a different disease.
Coronary artery disease
Narrowing of the arteries that feed the heart muscle, caused by plaque building in the vessel wall.
It develops over decades without symptoms. When a narrowing becomes severe enough to starve the muscle during exertion it causes chest pressure; when a plaque ruptures and a clot forms, it causes a heart attack. It is the most common form of heart disease.
Coronary calcium scan
A short CT scan that counts the calcified plaque in the heart’s arteries and returns it as a score.
Calcium in a coronary artery is a marker that atherosclerosis is present, and the score places a person on a risk scale rather than diagnosing a blockage. A score of zero is reassuring. It takes minutes, uses no dye and no needle, and is often the test that settles whether someone needs treatment.
Critical limb ischemia (CLI)
The advanced stage of peripheral artery disease, where blood flow is too low to keep the tissue alive at rest.
Pain is present without walking, often worst at night and eased by hanging the foot out of bed. Wounds stop healing and tissue can die. It is a limb-threatening emergency rather than a chronic complaint, and restoring blood flow quickly is what prevents amputation.
CT angiography (CTA)
A CT scan with contrast dye that shows the inside of the arteries without a catheter.
Where a calcium scan says how much hardened plaque is present, CT angiography shows the vessels themselves and where a narrowing sits. It has become the test that often decides whether a catheter procedure is needed at all. It uses contrast dye.
D
Defibrillator (ICD)
An implanted device that watches for a dangerous fast rhythm and delivers a shock to stop it.
Unlike a pacemaker, which prevents the heart going too slow, a defibrillator exists for the rhythms that cause sudden cardiac arrest. Many devices now do both jobs.
Diabetic foot ulcer
An open wound on the foot in a person with diabetes, usually where nerve damage and poor circulation meet.
Nerve damage removes the pain that would normally make someone stop and look, so an ulcer can form from a shoe rub and go unnoticed. Poor circulation then prevents it healing. It is the most common path to amputation in diabetes, and it is largely preventable with inspection and prompt treatment.
Diabetic neuropathy
Nerve damage caused by diabetes, most often felt in the feet as numbness, burning or tingling.
Its danger is the loss of protective sensation. A person who cannot feel a blister, a stone in the shoe or a hot surface can be injured without knowing, and in a foot with poor circulation that injury becomes an ulcer.
E
Echocardiogram
An ultrasound of the heart that shows the muscle, the valves and the blood moving through them, in real time.
It is painless, uses no radiation and takes around half an hour lying on your side. It answers most structural questions: how well the heart squeezes, whether a valve is narrowed or leaking, whether the walls are thickened, and whether there is fluid around the heart. No radiation is involved.
Ejection fraction (EF)
The percentage of blood the heart’s main chamber pushes out with each beat.
A normal figure is roughly 55 to 70 per cent. It never reaches 100, because the chamber does not empty completely. A falling ejection fraction is the number that defines one type of heart failure and drives most treatment decisions in it. Normal sits around 55 to 70 percent.
Electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG)
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken through stickers placed on the chest, arms and legs.
It takes about ten seconds and shows rhythm, rate and signs of strain or previous damage. Its limitation is the same ten seconds: a rhythm problem that comes and goes may not appear during the recording, which is when a monitor worn at home is used instead. The recording takes about ten seconds.
Endovascular
Treatment carried out from inside the blood vessel, through a catheter, rather than by opening the body.
Access is usually a puncture in the wrist or groin. Because nothing is cut open, recovery is measured in days rather than weeks. Most of what was once vascular surgery is now done this way, which is the distinction behind the term interventional. The scar is a puncture.
Endovenous ablation
A treatment that seals a failing vein from the inside using heat or an adhesive, so blood reroutes to healthy veins.
A catheter is placed in the vein under ultrasound guidance and the vein is closed along its length. The body absorbs the closed vein over time. It replaced vein stripping for most cases and is done in the office under local anaesthetic.
EVAR (endovascular aneurysm repair)
Repair of an aortic aneurysm by placing a fabric-covered stent inside the aorta rather than replacing the vessel through open surgery.
The graft is delivered through the groin arteries and lines the weakened section, so pressure no longer acts on the bulging wall. Recovery is far shorter than with open repair, and follow-up imaging is part of the treatment rather than optional. Follow-up imaging continues for life.
G
Genicular artery embolization (GAE)
A catheter treatment for knee osteoarthritis pain that reduces the abnormal blood supply feeding inflammation in the joint lining.
Tiny particles are injected into the small arteries around the knee through a catheter in the leg. It does not repair cartilage. It targets pain in people who have not responded to injections and are not ready for, or not candidates for, a knee replacement.
H
Heart failure
A state in which the heart cannot move blood well enough to meet the body’s needs, causing breathlessness, fatigue and swelling.
The name misleads: the heart has not stopped, it is underperforming. It can occur with a weak pump or with a stiff one that does not fill properly, and the two are managed differently. It is a long-term condition that is controlled rather than cured. The name misleads people.
I
Impella
A miniature pump placed through a catheter that supports circulation while the heart is too weak to manage alone.
It sits across the aortic valve and moves blood out of the left ventricle, taking load off the muscle. It is used during high-risk procedures and in cardiogenic shock, as temporary support rather than a permanent implant. It is temporary support.
Intra-aortic balloon pump
A balloon placed in the aorta that inflates and deflates in time with the heartbeat to improve blood flow to the heart muscle.
It inflates as the heart relaxes, pushing blood into the coronary arteries, and deflates just before the heart contracts so the muscle pumps against less resistance. Like the Impella it is temporary support while the underlying problem is treated. It is a bridge, not a cure.
IVC filter
A small metal cage placed in the body’s main abdominal vein to catch clots before they reach the lungs.
It is used when a clot is present and blood thinners cannot be given or have not worked. It stops clots travelling rather than treating the clot itself. Most are designed to be removed once the risk has passed, and removal should be planned rather than forgotten. Many are meant to come out.
M
Magnetic resonance venography (MRV)
An MRI study of the veins, used when ultrasound cannot see deep enough.
It shows the pelvic and abdominal veins without radiation and without a catheter, and it is often how compression syndromes are confirmed before anything is treated. No radiation, no iodine dye.
May-Thurner syndrome
Compression of the left iliac vein where the right iliac artery crosses over it, restricting blood leaving the left leg.
It is an anatomical quirk rather than a disease, present in many people without consequence. When it does cause trouble it shows as swelling of the left leg alone, and it explains a proportion of deep vein clots that appear on that side with no other cause. Women are affected more often.
MitraClip
A clip delivered by catheter that holds the leaflets of a leaking mitral valve together so less blood flows backwards.
It is used for people whose mitral regurgitation is severe but for whom open valve surgery carries too much risk. The clip does not replace the valve; it reduces the leak enough to relieve symptoms. No chest incision is needed.
Mitral valve disease
Narrowing or leaking of the valve between the upper and lower chambers on the left side of the heart.
A leaking mitral valve lets blood wash backwards into the upper chamber with each beat, which raises pressure back into the lungs and causes breathlessness. Severity is graded on an echocardiogram and decides whether it is watched, medicated or repaired. Breathlessness is often the first sign.
Mobile cardiac telemetry
A monitor worn for days or weeks that records the heart rhythm continuously and transmits it for review.
It exists because an EKG captures ten seconds and an intermittent arrhythmia rarely cooperates. If symptoms happen weekly rather than hourly, a device that watches for a fortnight is the only way to catch the event as it occurs. It transmits as it records.
Myocardial infarction
A heart attack: blood flow to part of the heart muscle stops and that tissue begins to die.
It usually follows the rupture of a plaque in a coronary artery and the sudden clot that forms on it. Time is the whole game, because muscle lost is not recovered. Symptoms are not always dramatic, and in women and people with diabetes they are more often breathlessness, nausea or fatigue than crushing chest pain. Delay costs heart muscle.
P
Pacemaker
A small implanted device that sends electrical impulses to keep the heart beating at an adequate rate.
It is used when the heart’s own conduction is too slow or blocked. It does not speed up a normal heart; it steps in when the rate falls below what the body needs. Implantation is done under local anaesthetic and usually takes an hour or two. The battery lasts years, not months.
Peripheral angioplasty
Widening a narrowed artery in the leg, arm, kidney or neck with a balloon delivered by catheter.
The balloon is inflated at the narrowing to open the vessel, and a stent may be left behind to hold it. It is the endovascular alternative to bypass surgery and is done through a small puncture rather than an incision. Access is a small puncture.
Peripheral artery disease (PAD)
Narrowing of the arteries supplying the legs, caused by the same plaque build-up that affects the heart.
Its first sign is usually claudication. Its importance goes beyond the legs: a person with PAD has the same disease in other arteries, so the finding changes how their heart and stroke risk is managed, not only how their walking is treated.
R
Renal artery stenosis
Narrowing of an artery supplying a kidney, which can drive blood pressure up and reduce kidney function.
The kidney reads reduced flow as low blood pressure in the body and signals for it to rise. That is why blood pressure that resists several medications, particularly with declining kidney function, prompts a look at the renal arteries. Blood pressure is often the clue.
Renal artery stenting
Placing a stent in a narrowed kidney artery to restore blood flow.
It is considered when blood pressure cannot be controlled with medication or kidney function is falling because of the narrowing, rather than for every narrowing that is found. It is reserved for selected cases.
S
Sclerotherapy
An injection that irritates the lining of a small vein so it collapses, seals and fades from view.
It is the usual treatment for spider veins and small varicose veins. Several sessions are common, the veins fade over weeks rather than immediately, and compression afterwards is part of the treatment rather than an optional extra. Several sessions are common.
Stent
A small mesh tube left inside an artery to hold it open after a narrowing has been widened.
It is delivered on a balloon through a catheter and expanded into place. Most modern coronary stents are coated with a drug that reduces the chance of the vessel narrowing again. The stent stays permanently; the catheter does not. It stays for life.
Stress test
A recording of the heart while it works harder, either from walking on a treadmill or from medication that mimics exertion.
Problems that hide at rest appear under load. The test shows how the heart responds to demand and whether part of the muscle is being starved of blood when it is asked to work, which a resting EKG cannot show.
T
TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement)
Replacement of a narrowed aortic valve using a catheter, without opening the chest.
A replacement valve is compressed, delivered through an artery in the groin and expanded inside the old valve, which is pushed aside. It began as an option for people too high-risk for surgery and is now standard for many. Hospital stays are commonly a day or two.
V
Varicose veins
Enlarged, twisted veins visible under the skin, caused by failing valves letting blood pool.
They are often treated as an appearance problem, and for some people that is all they are. For others they are the visible part of chronic venous insufficiency, and the aching, swelling, itching and skin changes that come with them are the reason to treat rather than the look. They are not only cosmetic.
Vascular ultrasound
An ultrasound scan of arteries or veins that shows both the vessel and the speed and direction of blood moving through it.
It is the workhorse of vascular diagnosis: no radiation, no dye, no needle. It detects clots, narrowings, aneurysms and failing valves, and it is how most vein and artery problems are confirmed before anything is treated. Nothing is injected.
Venogram
An X-ray study of the veins using contrast dye, which shows blockages and narrowings from the inside.
It is used when ultrasound has not answered the question, particularly in the pelvis and abdomen where veins are harder to see. It is frequently performed as part of the same session in which a narrowing is treated. It is used when ultrasound is not enough.
Venous leg ulcer
A wound near the ankle caused by the sustained pressure of blood pooling in the leg veins.
It sits on the inner ankle, is shallow with irregular edges, often weeps, and improves when the leg is elevated. It heals when the underlying vein problem is treated, not only when the wound is dressed, which is why these ulcers recur so often. Compression is the mainstay.
Venous stenting
Placing a stent in a compressed or narrowed vein to restore the flow of blood out of the leg or pelvis.
Veins are low-pressure vessels, so their stents are larger and more flexible than arterial ones. It is the usual treatment when a vein is being squeezed from outside, as in May-Thurner syndrome, or scarred after an old clot. The stent stays permanently.
W
Watchman
A small implant that closes off the left atrial appendage, the pouch where most clots form in atrial fibrillation.
It is placed through a catheter from a vein in the leg. It exists for people with AFib who need their stroke risk reduced but cannot stay on blood thinners, usually because of bleeding. Sealing the pouch removes the place the clots come from. It is placed once.
