Cardiac Catheterization

Cardiac catheterization (also called cardiac cath or coronary angiogram) is an invasive imaging procedure that allows your healthcare provider to evaluate your heart function. Your provider puts a catheter (tiny tube) into a blood vessel in your arm or groin and then into your coronary arteries. Providers can use a heart catheterization to find problems and use other procedures to fix them, sometimes during the same appointment. For example, your provider could fix a heart flaw you were born with or replace your heart valve without making a large incision and doing traditional surgery.

When would a cardiac catheterization be needed?

Cardiac catheterization is used to:

• Find out why you’re having chest pain or an abnormal heart rhythm.
• Take a tiny bit of muscle from your heart to examine (biopsy).
• Evaluate or confirm the presence of coronary artery disease, valve disease or disease of the aorta. Your provider may do this as a scheduled procedure or shortly after a heart attack.
• Evaluate heart muscle function.
• Check your pulmonary arteries for issues.
• Check on your blood flow, oxygen level and pressure in areas of your heart.
• Get more information that other tests couldn’t provide.
• Determine the need for further treatment (such as an interventional procedure or coronary artery bypass graft, or CABG, surgery).
• Place a stent to open a blockage in an artery.