Cardiac catheterization indications

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

• 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