Cardiac Cath - Universal Hospitals

Picture courtesy American Heart Association

Cardiac Catheterization(cardiac cath) is a procedure that examines the inside of your heart's blood vessels using special X-rays called angiograms. Dye visible by X-ray is injected into blood vessels using a thin hollow tube called a catheter.

During cardiac cath your doctor may:

• Take X-rays using contrast dye injected through the catheter to look for narrowed or blocked coronary arteries. This is called coronary angiography or coronary arteriography.
• Perform a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) such as coronary angioplasty with stenting to open up narrowed or blocked segments of a coronary artery.
• Check the pressure in the four chambers of your heart.
• Take samples of blood to measure the oxygen content in the four chambers of your heart.
• Evaluate the ability of the pumping chambers to contract.
• Look for defects in the valves or chambers of your heart.
• Remove a small piece of heart tissue to examine under a microscope (biopsy).

Once a catheter is in place, it can be used to perform a number of procedures including angioplasty, PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) angiography, transcatheter aortic valve replacement, balloon septostomy, and an electrophysiology study or catheter ablation. Devices such as pacemakers may be fitted, or rotablation to remove plaque can be performed.