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 29,847 practicing cardiologists. Broken out by state, cardiology doctor density in Alabama is 380, in Alaska is 30, in Arizona is 567, in Arkansas is 223, in California is 2,767, in Colorado is 351, in Connecticut is 480, in Delaware is 96, in District of Columbia is 210, in Florida is 2,030, in Georgia is 674, in Hawaii is 81, in Idaho is 78, in Illinois is 1,365, in Indiana is 657, in Iowa is 310, in Kansas is 261, in Kentucky is 414, in Louisiana is 469, in Maine is 122, in Maryland is 700, in Massachusetts is 1,159, in Michigan is 937, in Minnesota is 602, in Mississippi is 223, in Missouri is 663, in Montana is 78, in Nebraska is 187, in Nevada is 201, in New Hampshire is 146, in New Jersey is 1,216, in New Mexico is 182, in New York is 2,591, in North Carolina is 754, in North Dakota is 63, in Ohio is 1,257, in Oklahoma is 255, in Oregon is 257, in Pennsylvania is 1,753, in Rhode Island is 147, in South Carolina is 373, in South Dakota is 56, in Tennessee is 581, in Texas is 1,797, in Utah is 144, in Vermont is 49, in Virginia is 611, in Washington is 502, in West Virginia is 167, in Wisconsin is 560, and in Wyoming is 34.