Cardiac catheterization, also called heart catheterization, is a diagnostic and occasionally therapeutic procedure that allows a comprehensive examination of the heart and surrounding blood vessels. It enables the physician to take angiograms; record blood flow; calculate cardiac output and vascular resistance; perform an endomyocardial biopsy; and evaluate the heart's electrical activity. Cardiac catheterization is performed by inserting one or more catheters (thin flexible tubes) through a peripheral blood vessel in the arm (antecubital artery or vein) or leg (femoral artery or vein) under x-ray guidance.

Purpose

Cardiac catheterization is most commonly performed to examine the coronary arteries, because heart attacks, angina, sudden death, and heart failure most often originate from disease in these arteries. Cardiac catheterization may reveal the presence of other conditions, including enlargement of the left ventricle; ventricular aneurysms (abnormal dilation of a blood vessel); narrowing of the aortic valve; insufficiency of the aortic or mitral valve; and septal defects that allow an abnormal flow of blood from one side of the heart to the other.

Source Citation: "Cardiac catheterization." Jennifer E. Sisk, MA., Allison J. Spiwak, MSBME., and Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD. The Gale Encyclopedia of Surgery and Medical Tests. Ed. Brigham Narins. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 4 vols.