Heart Catheterization for Congenital Heart Defects Exam Overview
Back to top A heart catheterization is a procedure used for both
diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects. As a test,
this procedure allows doctors to see how blood flows through the
heart chambers and arteries. As a treatment, the doctor can use
special tools to fix a heart defect during this procedure. How
is it done? A thin, flexible tube called a catheter is threaded
through a blood vessel in the groin, or sometimes in another
location, and into the heart. Through the catheter, the doctor
can measure pressures, take blood samples, and inject a special
dye (contrast material) into the chambers of the heart or blood
vessels. The doctor watches the movement of the dye through the
heart's chambers and blood vessels. If the doctor is also going
to treat a defect, special tools are moved through the catheter
into the heart. The doctor uses these tools to correct the
defect. Then the tools and the catheter are removed. A heart
catheteriz