Cardiac Catheterization
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Chest pain and other symptoms could make you worried you're headed for a heart attack. Cardiac catheterization is a test that uses a small flexible tube (called a catheter) and an X-ray machine to find the cause of symptoms, like chest pain, that could suggest heart problems.
Cardiac catheterization helps your doctors:
- Find narrowed or clogged arteries of the heart
- Measure blood pressure inside your heart
- Check your heart valves and chambers to see how they're working
- See if you have heart defects
- Check you if you have an enlarged heart
- Decide on the best treatment
Getting Cardiac Catheterization at UVA Health
You'll get IV fluids and medicines during the procedure. We'll use an electrocardiogram (EKG) to watch your heart's activity.
You'll be awake but given local anesthesia so that you'll be more relaxed. You'll be asked to do some basic tasks, like as coughing, breathing out, or holding your breath. Tell your doctor if you feel any chest pain, lightheadedness, nausea, or other unusual feelings.
The doctor puts the catheter into your artery through either your groin or arm. A needle is put into your blood vessel, and a wire is passed through the needle until it reaches your heart. A soft, flexible catheter tube is slipped over the wire and threaded up to your heart.
X-ray pictures will show the placement of the wire and catheter. Dye is put into your heart arteries so they show up on the X-ray images. You may feel warm during the dye injection.
Once in place, the catheter takes measurements ,like blood pressure and blood samples. Multiple X-ray images are taken to look for any disease in the arteries. The catheter is taken out after all images and tests are complete.
A balloon angioplasty and stenting may be needed if there's an area in your arteries that is narrow or clogged. These procedures help to open narrowed arteries.
Cardiac Catheterization at UVA Health
Cardiac catheterization uses small flexible tubes (called a catheters) and an X-ray machine to find the causes of and treat certain kinds of heart and vascular disease. Here, providers on our heart & vascular care team discuss what to expect with cardiac catheterization.
A cardiac cath lab is a procedural area where minimally invasive procedures are performed on blood vessels or the heart itself.
So the most common procedures in our catheterization lab are either catheter-based procedures, where we're doing cardiac catheterization, looking at heart arteries and then fixing them with angioplasty or stenting, or electrophysiology procedures, where we're working on the rhythm, whether that's placing a pacemaker or defibrillator or doing what's called an ablation where you can try to cure a patient of an abnormal rhythm.
The UVA cardiac catheterization laboratory offers four main types of procedures for patients. The first is treatment of coronary artery disease, opening block blood vessels that take blood to the heart. The second is structural or valvular heart disease treatments. The third is peripheral vascular disease treatments, opening blocked or narrow blood vessels that take blood to the arms and legs. And the fourth is renal artery denervation, which is a novel FDA-approved treatment for high blood pressure. The goal of all cardiac cath lab procedures is to improve quality of life and some procedures actually extend life. So when patients undergo these procedures, one of the primary goals is to get patients back to doing whatever it is that they love to do or back to work, as the case may be, as soon as possible.
When patients come to our catheterization lab, they can expect that they're going to get the best care that they are going to get around. The nursing staff, the physicians that work in the lab, the technologists that are all involved in the procedure are very knowledgeable. The procedure should not be a painful procedure. Between local anesthetic and sedation, the procedures are very well tolerated, and the care that they receive after the catheterization is excellent.
One of the most important reasons that patients should come to UVA Health - because we truly offer multidisciplinary care, care that's coordinated between cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, and other health care providers. And we have an excellent safety record. We take patient safety extremely seriously, and we have great outcomes, and we publicly report our outcomes so you can look online and see how well we're doing.
Does Cardiac Catheterization Hurt?
Not usually. It can cause some discomfort, including:
- Burning on your skin where medicine is put to numb it
- Pressure when the catheter is put in or replaced with other catheters
- A flushing feeling or nausea when the dye is is put in
- Headache
- Fast heartbeat
The procedure takes about 30-90 minutes.