Cardiac catheterization indications

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Overview

Cardiac catheterization is performed to diagnose and assess the severity of aortic, coronary artery, pulmonary arterial, valvular, pericardial and myocardial disease.

Indications for Cardiac Catheterization

Confirm the presence of a suspected heart ailment
Quantify the severity of the disease and its effect on the heart
Seek out the cause of a symptom such as shortness of breath or signs of cardiac insufficiency
Make a patient assessment prior to heart surgery
To measure intracardiac and intravascular blood pressures
To take tissue samples for biopsy
To inject various agents for measuring blood flow in the heart; also to detect and quantify the presence of an intracardiac shunt
To inject contrast agents in order to study the shape of the heart vessels and chambers and how they change as the heart beats