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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffCardiac catheterization is a procedure used to check for many cardiovascular conditions, especially blockages in the arteries to your heart that could cause a heart attack. During cardiac catheterization, a long thin tube called a catheter is inserted in an artery or vein in your groin, neck or arm and threaded through your blood vessels to your heart. Using this catheter, doctors can then do diagnostic tests as part of a cardiac catheterization. Some heart disease treatments, such as coronary angioplasty, also are done using cardiac catheterization.
- Eastwood J. Nurse's role in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. In: Moser DK, et al. Cardiac Nursing: A companion to Braunwald's heart disease. Philadelphia, Pa..: Saunders Elsevier; 2007339.
- Barbara Woodward Lips Patient Education Center. About your heart-catheter procedures. Rochester, Minn.: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research; 2005.
