Cardiac catheterization indications
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