Interventional Cardiology is a subspecialty of cardiology in which catheter-based diagnostic tests and treatment are provided for coronary artery disease, valvular disease, structural heart disease, peripheral vascular disease and various other diseases. Interventional cardiology is a branch of cardiology that deals specifically with the catheter based treatment of structural heart diseases.
A large number of procedures can be performed on the heart by catheterization. This most commonly involves the insertion of a sheath into the femoral artery (but, in practice, any large peripheral artery or vein) and cannulating the heart under X-ray visualization (most commonly fluoroscopy).
The radial artery may also be used for cannulation; this approach offers several advantages:
- Easy accessibility of the artery in most patients.
- Easy control of bleeding even in anticoagulated patients.
- More comfortable to the patient because they are capable of sitting up and walking immediately following the procedure.
- The near absence of clinically significant sequelae in patients with a normal Allen test.