Understanding Cardiac Catheterization

I'm Dr. Atiq Khalid and I'm one of the interventional cardiologists here at Atrium Medical Center.  Catheterization is a procedure, common procedure, whereby we put a small catheter, or a small tube that you might say in lay term, from an artery in the patients right groin area and take it to the heart, and through that we inject dye in the arteries to visualize the arteries to see if there is any narrowing or blockage there.

If patients are having chest pains with exertion, which is called angina, that tells us that the blood flow to the muscle of the heart may be impaired and secondary to some stenosis or blockage in the artery that takes blood to the heart muscle, and this test is done to check if there is any blockage there.  While we are doing this test, we can also look at the heart muscle function and see how strong the muscle is.  We can also check pressures inside the heart and we can also see, how, if certain if the valves are working.  So, it gives us a lot of information.

A simple heart catheterization, it does not take more than 20, 20 to 25 minutes. If we find a blockage and we have to go and treat it or fix it by doing angioplasty or stenting, then it may take longer, but just for diagnosis and just for taking pictures, it takes about 20, 25 minutes.

The procedure, the only part that hurts is a small shot that is given in the groin area.  This, that is, ah, a local anesthetic.

If you come in and have your angiogram done and if the coronary arteries are clean and there is no stenosis or blockage, we observe you for about 2 to 3 hours after the procedure and you usually can go home after that. 

The procedure is done at Atrium Medical Center and it is done in a specialized suite where we have special equipment with radiation cameras. It is called a cardiac catheterization laboratory and the procedure is done there.