Who Needs Cardiac Catheterization?

Cardiac catheterization is used to diagnose and/or treat many heart conditions. Doctors may recommend this procedure for various reasons. The most common reason is to evaluate chest pain.

Chest pain may be a symptom of coronary heart disease (CHD). Cardiac catheterization can show whether plaque is narrowing or blocking your heart's arteries.

Doctors can treat CHD during cardiac catheterization with a procedure called angioplasty (AN-jee-oh-plas-tee). During angioplasty, a tiny balloon is put through the catheter and into the blocked artery. When the balloon is inflated, it pushes the plaque against the artery wall. This creates a wider pathway for blood to flow to the heart.

Sometimes a stent is placed in the artery during angioplasty. A stent is a small mesh tube that's used to treat narrowed or weakened arteries in the body.

Most people who have heart attacks have partly or completely blocked coronary arteries. Thus, cardiac catheterization may be done on an emergency basis while you're having a heart attack. When used with angioplasty, the procedure allows your doctor to open up blocked arteries and prevent more damage to your heart.

Cardiac catheterization also can help your doctor figure out the best treatment for your CHD if you:

• Recently recovered from a heart attack, but are having chest pain
• Had a heart attack that caused major damage to your heart
• Had an EKG (electrocardiogram), stress test, or other test with results that suggested heart disease

You also may need cardiac catheterization if your doctor suspects you have a heart defect or if you're about to have heart surgery. The procedure shows the overall shape of your heart and the four large spaces (heart chambers) inside it. This inside view of the heart will show certain heart defects and help your doctor plan your heart surgery.

Sometimes doctors do cardiac catheterization to see how well the valves at the openings and exits of the heart chambers are working. Valves control the flow of blood in the heart.

To check your valves, your doctor will measure blood flow and oxygen levels in different parts of your heart. Cardiac catheterization also can check how well a man-made heart valve is working and how well your heart is pumping blood.

If your doctor thinks you have a heart infection or tumor, he or she may take samples of your heart muscle through the catheter. With the help of cardiac catheterization, doctors can even do minor heart surgery, such as repair certain heart defects.