Cardiac catheterization and coronary angiogram are effective tools for evaluating the patient with a heart attack.

How Heart Catheterization Works
During a cardiac catheterization, a catheter (thin plastic tube) is inserted into an artery in the groin, and then threaded up through the aorta to the heart. The catheter can be used to inject x-ray dye into the coronary arteries that supply the heart. An x-ray machine is used to take pictures of the dye inside the coronary arteries. This procedure is referred to as coronary angiography. Using these procedures doctors can detecting narrowing or obstruction of the coronary arteries.

Examples include:

• Cardiac catheterization
• Coronary angiogram
• Coronary angiograms