Cardiac catheterization has become very common diagnostic test performed thousands of times a day. It's designed to aid your doctor in evaluating problems with the heart and its blood vessels. Cardiac catheterization provides information about how well blood flows through the heart; how well the heart pumps blood to the rest of the body and the function of the heart valves. This gives doctors information about how well the heart is working

Other tests like stress tests, electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, can give valuable information about the functioning of the heart. However, these tests do not give the amount of detail as a cardiac catheterization. Your doctor might suggest a cardiac catheterization to detect or more precisely show the heart condition.

	Indications For Cardiac Catheterization: Anyone with chest pain due to blocked coronary arteries not controlled with medication; To give a definitive diagnosis for chest pain of unknown origin that recurs despite less invasive tests; Recurrent chest pains after a heart attack; Anyone with valvular heart disease with symptoms such as shortness of breath and considering surgery as treatment.

Not everyone with chest pain should have a catheterization procedure. Those who only have an occasional episode of angina that is controlled by medicines should continue with medicine instead of major surgery. Using cardiac catheterization the doctor is able to only look at heart problems, not fix them. When there is a fixable problem it's usually treated by angioplasty or cardiac surgery.

What Is The Procedure For Cardiac Catherization?

During cardiac catheterization a long, thin tube is threaded through a blood vessel in the leg into the heart. Dye is injected through the catheter, while an X-ray movie is being made of the dye moving through the arteries. The most common reason a cardiac catheterization is to look at the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Blockages in these arteries lead to angina and heart attacks. As the dye passes through the coronary arteries it's seen as a white line on the X-rays. A disruption of the white line may mean a plaque has formed inside the wall of the artery. The movement of the dye is interpreted by your physician and by a computer. If a heart problem shows during the procedure your cardiologist will determine whether medications, angioplasty or cardiac surgery is the step

What Are The Risks Of Cardiac Catheterization?

Although the risk cardiac catheterization is a relatively low, complications can sometimes occur.

These can include:

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