Cardiology is the treatment of diseases of the heart and blood vessels. A cardiologist is a physician who specializes in treating heart conditions such as abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks, coronary artery disease, congenital heart defects, and disease of the heart valves. A cardiologist can inform your doctor about new drugs or tests that may be beneficial to you.

Some heart conditions can cause permanent damage to the heart muscle, and can be fatal. Methods that cardiologists use to study heart conditions include stress tests, a monitor to record your heart rate and rhythm, a biopsy, which studies a tiny piece of heart tissue, and an echocardiogram, which uses sound waves to show a picture of how your heart works.

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are blood clot, peripheral vascular disease, angioplasty, hypertension, heart attack, congestive heart failure, angina, atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy, coronary heart disease, pericarditis, ventricular tachycardia, acute coronary syndrome, cardiac arrest, bigeminy, heart block, myxoma, cardiac arrhythmias, tricuspid valve disorders, and aortic valve disorders.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including gastric bypass surgery, open heart surgery, valve replacement, valve repair, bypass surgery, carotid artery surgery, catheter ablation, cardiac surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, cardiac bypass surgery, cardiovascular surgery, laser angioplasty, valvuloplasty, balloon angioplasty, atherectomy, coronary artery bypass surgery, coronary artery bypass graft, coronary angioplasty, heart transplantation, and carotid surgery.

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including electrocardiogram (ecg or ekg), cardiac stress test, holter monitor, echocardiogram, blood test, sphygmomanometer, cardiac enzymes, ivus, electrophysiologic study, and coronary catheterization.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 28,379 practicing cardiologists. Broken out by state, cardiology doctor density in Alabama is 352, in Alaska is 33, in Arizona is 501, in Arkansas is 191, in California is 2,571, in Colorado is 289, in Connecticut is 473, in Delaware is 94, in District of Columbia is 208, in Florida is 1,866, in Georgia is 679, in Hawaii is 78, in Idaho is 80, in Illinois is 1,227, in Indiana is 627, in Iowa is 269, in Kansas is 229, in Kentucky is 415, in Louisiana is 653, in Maine is 126, in Maryland is 680, in Massachusetts is 1,146, in Michigan is 882, in Minnesota is 568, in Mississippi is 225, in Missouri is 639, in Montana is 67, in Nebraska is 158, in Nevada is 179, in New Hampshire is 147, in New Jersey is 1,194, in New Mexico is 167, in New York is 2,510, in North Carolina is 848, in North Dakota is 51, in Ohio is 1,211, in Oklahoma is 244, in Oregon is 219, in Pennsylvania is 1,599, in Rhode Island is 150, in South Carolina is 332, in South Dakota is 52, in Tennessee is 559, in Texas is 1,703, in Utah is 141, in Vermont is 54, in Virginia is 596, in Washington is 467, in West Virginia is 153, in Wisconsin is 477, and in Wyoming is 33.