• consultation with referring physicians
• treatment alternatives:
  • individualized medical therapy
  • risk assessment
  • bridging mechanical assist devices
  • cardiac transplantation
• consultation and coordination with other UCSF specialists:
  
  • Outpatient Heart Failure Program
  • Inpatient Advanced Cardiac Care Unit
  • Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology
  • Service
  • Cardiac Exercise Laboratory
  • Cardiothoracic Surgery Service
  • Cardiac Transplant Service

Linking Clinical Research and State-of-the-Art Treatment

UCSF is internationally recognized for its excellence in the diagnosis and management of patients with heart failure. UCSF cardiologists Kanu Chatterjee and William Parmley have pioneered various treatments of heart failure. Their contributions have resulted in treatment which is now considered standard therapy to improve function and prolong life for patients with heart failure.

Today, UCSF continues to be at the forefront in evaluating new pharmacologic agents which offer potentially promising therapeutic benefits. Working in conjunction with the cardiac transplant program, we are also conducting clinical trials using agents that function as either a "pharmacologic bridge to cardiac transplant" or as palliative therapy for patients with severe end-stage heart failure who are not appropriate cardiac transplant candidates.

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Patient Evaluation Process

Patients referred to the UCSF Heart Failure Evaluation and Treatment Center are typically evaluated in the Heart Failure Clinic. After the initial consultation, a UCSF faculty physician will contact the referring physician to discuss findings and recommendations.

At the referring physician's request, patients with major symptoms of heart failure despite empiric standard therapy may be admitted to the Advanced Cardiac Care Unit to be evaluated for complex revascularization or cardiac transplantation.

Treatment recommendations and follow-up care plans are developed through close collaboration with the referring physician.

How to Refer a Patient:

Call (415) 353-2873

Summary of Services

Heart Failure Service

• Endomyocardial biopsy and interpretation
• Metabolic myocardial imaging using positron emission tomography (PET)
• Interventional echocardiography
• Invasive hemodynamic monitoring to optimize therapy for patients with refractory symptoms of heart failure
• Investigational pharmacologic agents
• Cardiopulmonary exercise testing
• Evaluation for cardiac transplantation

Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology Service

• Ambulatory electrocardiography
• Signal-averaged electrocardiography
• Invasive electrophysiologic testing
• DC and radiofrequency catheter ablation
• Implantation and testing of automatic cardioverter-defibrillators
• Pacemaker and device clinic

Cardiac Transplant Service

• Evaluation for cardiac transplantation
• Assessment for complex revascularization
• Treatment with pharmacologic or mechanical bridges to cardiac transplant

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University of California
San Francisco Medical Center

HEART FAILURE
EVALUATION AND
TREATMENT CENTER

Heart FELT

University of California, San Francisco
505 Parnassus Avenue, M-1176
San Francisco, CA 94143-0124

(415) 353-2873

Multidisciplinary Team Members

• Heart Failure Evaluation and Treatment Center
• Faculty
  • Kanu Chatterjee, MB, FRCP, FACC
    • Center Director
  • Teresa De Marco, MD, FACC
    • Center Co-Director
    • Medical Director, Cardiac Transplantation
  • William Grossman, MD, FACC
    • Chief, Cardiology
  • Melvin Scheinman, MD, FACC
    • Director, Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia Program
• Research/Clinical Nurse Coordinators
  • Debra Lau, RN
• Heart Transplant Coordinators
  • Celia Rifkin, RN
  • Jill Obata, RN