Support Clinics

Cardiology Diagnostics

Your doctor is able to refer you for cardiac monitoring to Abbott Pathology. You are able to attend one of our designated patient collection centres located throughout South Australia, where we are able to provide you and your doctor with timely, accurate and affordable cardiac lab diagnostics including ECGs, Holter Monitor Services and 24 Hour blood pressure monitoring. Your referring doctor will be sent your results of your testing generally within twenty four hours and less if urgent.


As part of its role as diagnostic partner with your treating doctor, Abbott Pathology provides patients with cardiac diagnostic services including:

These services are only available by referral to us by your treating doctor or specialist cardiologist. Abbott Pathology engages leading consultant cardiologists to report on all cardiac diagnostic tests and reports your results directly back to your treating doctor. 

These services are provided by us at specific patient collection centres only. You will not require an appointment for ECG monitoring, however you will generally need to make an appointment for both Holter Monitoring and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring, so please telephone your nearest cardiac service collection centre in advance.

You do NOT need to make an appointment for ECG monitoring, however we suggest you avoid the busiest morning time if you wish to avoid waiting times.

To find one of our designated cardiac care patient pathology collection centres offering the following services, please click below:

    

Please Note: If at any time you feel you are experiencing a heart attack, DO NOT wait to attend one of our collection centres - call 000 immediately.

Someone having a heart attack may experience any or all of the following:

•  Uncomfortable pressure, fullness or squeezing pain in the centre of the chest lasting more than
    a few minutes

•  Pain spreading to the shoulders, neck or arms

•  Light-headedness, fainting, sweating, nausea or shortness of breath

Cardiac Laboratory services provided by Abbott Pathology:

12-lead ECG Trace and Reporting

Abbott Pathology provides an ECG trace and reporting service where the ECG is taken by one of our certified staff in one of our patient collection centres. The machine simultaneously acquires 10 seconds of ECG data in each of the 12 leads. The data is stored in the machine until it is transmitted electronically to Abbott Pathology for analysis. Once analysed, the interpreted ECG is sent to the requesting doctor.

12-lead ECG Reporting Only Service

Abbott Pathology provides an ECG reporting-only service where the ECG trace is taken by your doctor in his or her surgery on in a hospital. The hard copy output or trace of the ECG is couriered to Abbott Pathology (or one of its patient collection centres) for analysis. Once analysed, the interpreted ECG is returned to the ordering doctor.

24-hour Holter monitoring

Holter monitoring is a basic, noninvasive tool used to evaluate and manage cardiac symptoms. The monitor continuously records the patient’s cardiac rhythm for 12 to 24 hours. The data is then sent to Abbott Pathology office, where it is analysed. A report is typically returned to the ordering physician within 24 to 48 hours after the patient’s data is received by us.

24-hour blood pressure monitoring (ABPM)

This procedure is effective in helping physicians decide whether to start a patient on anti-hypertensive therapy. The monitor takes blood pressure readings once every 20 minutes during daytime hours and once an hour after the patient activates the sleep mode. Data is then transmitted to the Abbott Pathology office. Once received, the results are shortly delivered to your requesting doctor.

Billing

Abbott Pathology will with the appropriate referral form, bulk-bill all medicare eligible cardiology testing (i.e., no out of pocket payment).

Please note that ABPM is not covered by Medicare and will incur an out of pocket cost to the patient.