The CT scans, like the cardiac catheterization, utilize IV dye and can potentially damage the kidneys as well.
Patients with a positive coronary CT scan would then require a cardiac catheterization, with possible angioplasty and stent placement.
The catheterization involves intravenous administration of contrast dye which could potentially damage the kidneys in a small number of patients.
During a heart attack, specialty centers can rush patients to catheterization where a cardiologist can open heart vessels with a balloon.
Physicians are also experimenting with robotic devices that will allow doctors to perform complicated procedures, including cardiac catheterization, at a distance.
Today, the cardiologist said, she would get a stress test, an echocardiogram, a mobile Holter monitor, and maybe even a cardiac catheterization.
"This really is an insurance policy for him, " said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Cheney's personal cardiologist and head of the hospital's cardiac catheterization lab.
However, efforts to deliver primary PCI to the broadest possible population inevitably result in an increased number of false-positive activations of the cardiac catheterization laboratory.
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And if that passivity catches up with them, Carlin's satellite-linked EKG machine or a robotic catheterization lab might be just a 20-minute mule ride away.
Lotem said that during the heart catheterization procedure doctors would use a thin plastic tube to insert an "umbrella-like" device that will seal the hole between the two upper chambers of the heart.
The stress thallium and the cardio catheterization, in which dye is injected in the coronary arteries (arteries of the heart muscle) are both useful in telling us if there is any coronary artery disease.
Additional tests may include a nuclear stress test to assess for blockages in the coronary arteries, and if positive, a cardiac catheterization, an invasive test which involves threading a thin wire into the heart to assess for blockages in the coronary arteries as well.
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