Cardiac Catheterization
Cardiac catheterization helps your care team examine your heart. Through this procedure, Enloe Health’s trusted heart specialists can see if your heart, valves or arteries are healthy. They can also find blockages, irregular heart rhythms and other heart problems.
Enloe Health Medical Center features a Cardiac Catheterization Lab equipped with leading-edge technology. This improves your experience, increases your safety and reduces your exposure to radiation.
Cardiac Catheterization Explained
Enloe Health’s Cardiovascular Care Center features a Cardiac Catheterization Lab comprised of state-of-the-art technology and techniques.
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If you need cardiac catheterization, your cardiologist will place a flexible, hollow tube called a catheter into your groin or arm. Then he or she will thread the tube through your arteries and veins to your heart.
During this procedure, caregivers can do several things to examine your heart and provide treatment. These include:
- Coronary angiograms: In an angiogram, your care team will take X-rays to see your blood vessels. This imaging can help identify blockages in your coronary system. These can include atherosclerosis, fat and cholesterol plaque buildups in your arteries.
- Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasties (PTCA): During an angioplasty, your team will treat your blocked arteries. Heart specialists will do this using balloons that can open your affected vessels.
- Coronary stenting: A coronary stent can increase a PTCA. If this is done, your care team will place a small, expandable coil, or stent, in your unhealthy vessel. This reinforces the vessel, providing better blood flow than only having an angioplasty.
- Heart Electrophysiology Services (EPS): These help your care team examine irregular heart rhythms. EPS, sometimes called electrophysiology cardiology, test your heart’s electrical activity and can help your team find arrhythmias. The results can help your team decide whether you need a medicine, a pacemaker for atrial fibrillation, arrhythmia surgery or another type of surgery, or another form of treatment.
Enloe Health also features Cardiac Rehabilitation, which focuses on helping those with heart disease recover and enjoy healthier lifestyles.
