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CNN Saturday Morning News

Cheney at Hospital for Heart Tests

Aired June 30, 2001 - 09:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Vice President Dick Cheney arrived at a Washington hospital this morning -- George Washington Hospital, to be precise. At this hour, doctors are to perform a heart test to determine whether to implant a device to monitor his heart, and, if necessary, to regulate its rhythm.

CNN medical correspondent Rea Blakey joins us live from the hospital with the latest.

Hello again, Rea.

REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Miles.

If things are going basically according to schedule, electrophysiologists should be just about ready to record Mr. Cheney's heartbeat and stimulate his heart. He arrived here at George Washington University Hospital at about 8:02. He seemed in good spirits. He waved at the cameras, took a moment to sort of assess the situation, and then he went on into the hospital.

He was told not to drink or eat anything for at least six hours before the procedure, which is called an electrophysiology study, or EPS for short. Basically, he'll receive a mild sedative. The X-ray technicians will take about 30 minutes to set up their cameras so that they can insert a lead or a wire into the upper thigh and/or groin area of the vice president, send that wire up into the chest cavity into the heart, so that they can do the actual recording and stimulation.

The idea is, they actually want to create the arrhythmia that was noted about two weeks ago during a study when the vice president had on a portable EKG, if you will. He had referred to this device, a pacemaker plus. This actually is a pacemaker. The difference being that one actually functions potentially in a dual role, and the doctors won't know which one they might implant into the vice president's chest until they get this EPS study, the results of that study, so that they'll know more about that.

Basically, the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is designed to charge the system if, in fact, the vice president's heart beats too quickly. At one point his heartbeat was recorded at 130 beats per minute, which is just a little bit too high. However, that only lasted for about one or two seconds each time when it was recorded, for four different occasions during a 34-hour period. So as things progress, we'll keep you posted, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Rea Blakey. We will be checking in with you. Let us know how things go.

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