![]() ![]() Having an angiogram requires a visit to a hospital to a special room called the catheterization laboratory, or “cath lab.” The cath lab is equipped with an x-ray camera and a TV monitor (screen) on which the cardiologist views your heart and arteries. You will receive medications to help you relax before the procedure begins.Your blood count, kidney function and blood clotting tests may be performed beforehand.You will be asked not to eat or drink anything for several hours before the procedure.If you take medications, such as blood-thinners, consult with your cardiologist about whether you should stop taking them before the angiogram.Your cardiologist or nurse practitioner will offer instructions on how to prepare for the angiogram. How Is an Angiogram Performed? Before the Angiogram This information is critical because it helps the cardiologist plan the best approach for treating each blockage. The angiogram also provides details about the size and shape of any blockages. The movie, which you and your doctor may view on the TV screen, shows blood flow through the arteries of the heart and the location of any blockages. The dye makes it possible for an x-ray camera to record a “movie” of your heart and its arteries. A special “contrast” dye is injected into the catheter and to the coronary arteries and heart. To get this special view, a catheter (a small, flexible tube) is inserted into a large vessel in your upper thigh or arm, and then guided through the arteries to the heart. Your cardiologist performs an angiogram to "see" any blockages in the heart (coronary) arteries, the vessels through which blood flows to your heart muscle. That the arteries to your heart are narrowed or blocked, exactly where the blockages are located and their size - information that will enable the cardiologist to develop a treatment plan.That blood flow to your heart is not being restricted by blockages - a finding that lets you and your doctor know your symptoms are not related to your heart or.This article covers the history of RHC, how to perform a complete right heart study and a review of its current place as a diagnostic tool in a range of cardiovascular disorders.An angiogram is a diagnostic procedure that provides detailed x-ray pictures of your heart and its blood vessels. The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) core curriculum 2013 states that trainees should possess the skills to ‘carry out right heart catheterization in the catheterization laboratory and at the bedside, and measure cardiac output, intravascular pressure, and oxygen saturation’. 2, 3 RHC can be also used to assess the haemodynamic effects of treatments directly and provides an entry route for intracardiac biopsy. It is the gold standard method for diagnosing pulmonary hypertension (PH) and an essential component in the evaluation of patients prior to heart and/or lung transplantation. 1 RHC, however, remains an important tool in a cardiologist's diagnostic armoury, providing direct haemodynamic data that can be used to determine cardiac output (CO), evaluate intracardiac shunts and valve dysfunction. Significant improvements in the diagnostic power and availability of non-invasive cardiac imaging techniques, in addition to evidence of potential harm associated with pulmonary artery (PA) catheterisation in patients in critical care, have led to a decline in right heart catheterisation (RHC) over recent years. ![]()
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