Cardiac Catheterization

This procedure is suitable for patients who experience chest pain and a electrocardiography result indicates abnormalities, or an echocardiogram result reveals possible coronary artery diseases.

Cardiac catheterization is an important method of diagnosing coronary artery diseases and of treating them with balloon angioplasty, by locating where, how many and to what extent the coronary arteries are blocked as well as showing the functioning of the heart’s left chambers. The diagnosis takes only 15-20 minutes and provides guidelines for the patient’s living and treatment, whether the conditions warrant non-surgical procedure (in case of no significant narrowing of coronary arteries), balloon angioplasty, heart surgery.

In a certain cases, no hospital stay is needed. The patient can have the test in the morning, return home after resting for 6-8 hours, and visit the doctor in the following morning to discuss the treatment. This method is currently widely used in many countries. And Thai cardiologists’ increased expertise gained from Europe and America attracts more and more foreigners (mostly from Asian and Middle Eastern nations) to Thailand to undergo the test and balloon angioplasty treatment. If a patient has chest pain caused from acute atherosclerosis, high pulse rate, dizziness and fatigue, Electrophysiology or blood test may indicate the presence of narrowed arteries. However, if no obvious symptoms can be observed, the doctor may request an exercise stress test alone or together with a 2- or 3-dmension color ultrasound or with a heart stimulant in order to assess the narrowing condition of arteries before coronary arteriography.

Balloon Angioplasty: Radial Artery Approach

Radial Artery Approach: An option of balloon angioplasty
This approach, done by performing balloon angioplasty and inserting a stent through the radial pulse at a wrist, yields similar results as does the balloon angioplasty performed through femoral artery at the patient’s upper thigh. The radial artery angioplasty can be done to both wrists, depending upon suitability and the size of artery. In the past 3-4 years, progress in medical equipment has made possible so small-sized a tool that a wire at the tip of the catheter, over the balloon, can be placed in the artery to hold the artery open.

The Benefits of Radial Artery Approach

1. With no need to lie with both legs straight for several hours after the angioplasty, the patients can go to toilet and sit to dine at the table.
2. There is no bruise at the thigh after angioplasty and vascular stenting.
3. The method causes no risk of injuring the blood vein or nerve at the wrist since only artery and wrist bone exist in the wrist area.
4. Only a short hospital stay is needed.

Future Trend

The Radial Artery Approach is expected to replace the conventional Femoral Artery Approach by 2/3. The reasons the informed patients choose this alternative is that they believe that it offers a more safety and less frightening experience than the femoral artery angioplasty does. However, the latter is still the only option in some cases as the larger area of the leg allows large equipment, like catheter with diamond coated head or laser catheter, to be inserted.