Cardiology Department I

The Department of Cardiology was established in the 1960s and carries forward the physicianly spirit of rigorous scholarship and selfless dedication embodied by the older generation of cardiovascular experts, including Ye Xuying, Li Changyu, Zhao Xianglian, and Liu Yuhui. Over the past nearly 30 years, Professor Qu Peng, the head of the discipline, has led the department in pioneering progress and united its efforts, enabling it to expand continuously and successively develop several subspecialties. As the longstanding backbone of the Department of Cardiology, Cardiology Department I has now become a cardiovascular medical center with comprehensive development in medical care, scientific research, and teaching.

As the core of the Department of Cardiology’s technical strength, Cardiology Department I has developed into a flagship department whose strengths lie in the interventional treatment of coronary heart disease and heart valve disease. It specializes in the interventional treatment of angina associated with complex and severe coronary heart disease, emergency interventional treatment for acute myocardial infarction, and the monitoring, rescue, and treatment of critical emergencies caused by coronary heart disease. It has become the National Training Base for Interventional Diagnosis and Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease and the Dalian Cardiovascular Medical Quality Control Center. It was also among the first institutions in the three northeastern provinces to carry out transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for aortic stenosis, and has become the TAVR Treatment Center of the Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University within the Northeast TAVR Alliance. The department’s interventional team also routinely performs interventional treatment for congenital heart disease, including atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, and patent foramen ovale; implantation of permanent pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs); cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT/D); chemical ablation for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; interventional treatment of renal artery stenosis; and interventional treatment of heart valve disease and peripheral vascular disease.

The department has an approved capacity of 30 beds and a full complement of physicians, nurses, and laboratory research and technical personnel. All physicians hold doctoral degrees; the department has 3 professors, 3 associate professors, 1 doctoral supervisor, and 5 master’s supervisors. As a coronary heart disease subspecialty, the department performs more than 2,500 interventional procedures each year and has completed tens of thousands of coronary interventions since the subspecialty was established. The interventional team uses coronary rotational atherectomy to treat calcified coronary lesions and applies advanced intracoronary imaging technologies—such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT)—as well as coronary physiological assessment techniques, including coronary flow reserve testing, to guide the interventional treatment of complex coronary lesions. The nursing team has independently developed and obtained approval for several new technologies. Following the principles of patient-centered care and technology-led practice, the department develops individualized precision treatment plans for coronary heart disease, achieving very good therapeutic outcomes and receiving unanimous praise from patients and their families. As a member institution of the Northeast TAVR Alliance, Cardiology Department I has successfully performed more than 30 TAVR procedures to date, with no deaths or complications in any of them. Its technical level and procedural success rate are both at a leading level in China.

Under the leadership of Professor Qu Peng, director of the Institute of Heart and Vascular Research and academic leader of the discipline, Cardiology Department I actively conducts scientific research and leads and participates in numerous research projects, including more than ten projects in total comprising key projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and provincial-level projects. It has published more than 100 articles in SCI-indexed and core journals. Upholding the spirit of the hospital motto, “Revere virtue and honor medicine,” the department pursues development through continuous innovation, explores the essence of disease in depth, and truly alleviates patients’ suffering. The sea embraces a hundred rivers and becomes deep and broad; the mountains accommodate myriad trees and become lush. The entire medical and nursing staff of Cardiology Department I now present a completely renewed image, united as one and dedicated to the interventional treatment of coronary heart disease and heart valve disease, safeguarding human cardiac health.