St. Elizabeth $ Pay Bill

Find: Doctor Location

MyChart $ Pay Bill Pagar Su Factura

Text -+

  • Patients & Visitors
    • Building and Campus Maps
    • During Your Stay
    • Facility Updates
    • Financial Assistance
    • Gift Shop
    • Health Plan Information
    • HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices
    • Interpretation/Translation Services
    • Nutrition Services
    • Pagar Su Factura
    • Patient Resource Services
    • Pay My Bill
    • Pharmacy
    • Quality of Care
    • Safety or Quality Concerns
    • Visiting of Patients
    • WebNursery
    • Wi-Fi Usage
  • Medical Services
    • Alcohol & Drug Treatment
    • Behavioral Health
    • Business Health Services
    • Cancer Care
    • Dermatology & Aesthetics
    • Diabetic Care
    • Emergency Medicine
    • Employee Assistance Program
    • Endocrinology
    • Family Birth Place
    • Family Medicine
    • Gastroenterology
    • General Surgery
    • Genetics
    • Hand Therapy
    • Heart & Vascular
    • Hospice
    • Hospitalists
    • Imaging
    • Infectious Disease
    • Intensive Care Units
    • Internal Medicine
    • Lab Services - Outpatient
    • Neurology
    • Oncology
    • Ophthalmology
    • Orthopaedics
    • Pain Management
    • Palliative Care
    • Pediatrics
    • Physiatry
    • Physical & Occupational Therapy
    • Podiatry
    • Precision Medicine
    • Primary Care
    • Pulmonary Services
    • Rheumatology
    • Sleep Disorders
    • Speech Pathology
    • Spine Center
    • Sports Medicine
    • Stroke Services
    • Thoracic Surgery
    • Total Joint Center
    • Urgent Care
    • Urogynecology
    • Urology
    • Weight Management
    • Women's Health
    • Wound Care
  • Community Outreach
    • Activating Hope
    • CardioVascular Mobile Health Unit
    • Classes & Events
    • Community Benefits
    • Domestic Violence Program
    • Foundation
    • Fresh Start Smoking Cessation
    • Grief Support
    • Health Ministries
    • Healthy Headlines
    • Media Relations
    • Mobile Mammography
    • News
    • Pastoral Care
    • Power Lunches
    • PrimeWise
    • Sponsored Runs & Walks
    • Sponsorship Requests
    • Support Groups
    • Walking Paths
  • Resources
    • About Us
    • Administration
    • Ask the Expert
    • Awards
    • Board of Trustees
    • Corporate Compliance
    • Create a Care Card
    • Family Medicine Residency
    • Family Practice Center
    • Financial Assistance
    • For Health Professionals
    • Frequently Called Numbers
    • Get a Second Opinion
    • Health Library
    • History
    • Human Resources
    • Insurance Carriers
    • Living Will
    • Mayo Clinic Care Network
    • Mission/Vision/Values
    • Mobile App
    • Patient Pricing
    • PulsePoint
    • Quality Reporting
    • Send a CareGram
    • Sponsorship Requests
    • Volunteer Services
  • Careers
    • Apply Now
    • Current Associates
    • Nursing
    • Physician Recruitment
    • See All Jobs
    • St. Elizabeth Physicians Jobs
  • Homepage
  • Medical Services
  • Heart & Vascular
  • Cardiology
  • Minimally Invasive Procedures
HEADER-SM-SEH-2016-0110

Minimally Invasive Procedures

Find a Location Find a Doctor
Heart & Vascular
  • Arrhythmia Center
    • Diagnostic Testing
    • Treatments/Procedures
  • Cardiology
    • Minimally Invasive Procedures
    • Heart Attack Care
  • Clinical Research
  • Diagnostic Services
  • Heart & Lung Surgery
    • Heart Disease Treatment
    • Lung & Airway Disease Treatment
  • Other Services
    • Cardiac Rehab
    • Heart Failure Center
  • Patient Success Stories
  • Prevention & Wellness
    • CardioVascular Mobile Health Unit
    • Freshstart
    • Hands-only CPR
    • Healing Hearts Women's Support Group
    • Heart Healthy Lifestyle Tips
    • My Heart Rocks
    • Take Time For Your Heart
    • Women and Heart Disease
  • Valve Center
    • Treatments
  • Your Hospital Stay
    • Care After Heart Surgery
    • Intensive Care for Heart Conditions
    • Nurses with Heart Care Expertise
    • Partners in Heart Care
    • Transitional Care Units

What Is Heart Catheterization?

Doctors at St. Elizabeth Heart & Vascular Institute use imaging exams and catheter-based procedures to diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease. In many instances, our specialists can assess and treat your condition during a single procedure.

To perform heart catheterization, your doctor makes a tiny incision in your upper thigh (groin) or wrist and inserts a catheter – a thin, flexible tube – into a large blood vessel that leads to your heart.

These procedures are performed in our Cardiac Catheterization Labs by cardiologists and interventional cardiologists, who specialize in catheter-based procedures.

Diagnosing Heart Disease

We use a variety of exams to diagnose heart disease, such as:

  • Angiogram – Views the inside of arteries in your heart, kidney and lungs, as well as peripheral arteries (not in the chest or abdomen, including arms and legs).
  • Nitrous oxide challenge – Measures pressure in your heart and pulmonary artery (to diagnose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
  • Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) – Examines the inside of your arteries using sound waves.
  • Swan-Ganz catheterization – Monitors heart function and blood flow.

Diagnostic exams are outpatient procedures that don’t usually require an overnight stay. However, if you undergo an interventional procedure (treatment) in addition to a diagnostic exam, you may require a brief hospital stay.

Heart Disease Treatments

Whenever possible, your doctor will perform these interventional procedures – rather than surgery – to treat disease. Doctors use these techniques to reopen blocked arteries, restore normal heart rhythm or improve blood flow – including lifesaving heart attack care:

  • Angioplasty and stent placement – Opens narrowed or blocked arteries by inflating a tiny balloon (also called balloon angioplasty). In many instances, doctors place a stent – a small, metal tube – in the artery to keep it open. This procedure is used in coronary, peripheral and carotid arteries, as well as in the kidneys.
  • Atherectomy – Removes plaque buildup in blood vessels using a catheter with a sharp blade (metal burr).
  • Atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale repairs – Closes openings in the heart that are there at birth (congenital abnormalities).
  • Coronary thrombectomy – Removes a blood clot from a blood vessel that supplies blood to the heart.
  • Pericardiocentesis – Removes fluid from around the heart.
  • Septal ablations – Destroys diseased heart tissue that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by creating a small, controlled heart attack.
  • Temporary pacemaker implantation – Treats short-term heart problems, such as a slow heartbeat caused by a heart attack, heart surgery or a medicine overdose.
  • Temporary ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation – Stabilizes someone who’s critically ill until diagnosis and treatment decisions can be determined.
  • Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) – Replaces the aortic valve in the heart. This offers a minimally invasive alternative to some people who can’t have open-heart surgery,
  • Valvuloplasty – Improves blood flow in the heart by opening the aortic, mitral or pulmonary valve in the heart with a tiny balloon (similar to angioplasty).

Our heart and vascular team will discuss the treatments that are right for you.

Contact Us

For a new patient cardiology appointment, call 859-301-HERE (4373).

To find contact information for your current provider, search here.

Glenna Maxwell

Just before her 40th birthday, Glenna learned she needed surgery to repair a heart defect she was born with. Learn how a minimally invasive procedure gave Glenna her life back.

READ GLENNA'S STORY

Valve Replacement Without Open-Heart Surgery

Vicki_Rankin_resized_for_web_1-13-2015

When Vicki learned she had a faulty heart valve, she thought she'd have to undergo open-heart surgery. But a new, minimally invasive option had her up and around just two weeks after the procedure.

READ VICKI'S STORY

About St. Elizabeth
  • About Us
  • Associate Log In
  • Careers
  • For Health Professionals
  • Foundation
  • St. Elizabeth Physicians
  • Learn More
How Can We Help?
  • Find a Location
  • Find a Provider
  • Frequently Called Numbers
  • Health Library
  • Pay My Bill
  • Pagar Su Factura
  • Site Map
Legal
  • Disclaimer/HIPAA
  • Patient Rights and Responsibilities
  • © 2016 St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
  • All rights reserved. St. Elizabeth Healthcare is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation serving the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati region. Tax identification #610445850
Help Us Continue To Provide Quality Care
  • Donate
  • Human Resources
  • Physician Opportunities
  • Volunteer
Visit St. Elizabeth Physicians
Healthy
Headlines
  • Helping you live a better life.
  • View Health Tips
Social