Asked & Answered Podcast
The Texas Heart Institute Center for Cardiovascular Care's general and interventional cardiologist, Dr. Alexander Postalian, answers patients' questions about cardiovascular health.
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Asked and Answered.
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Asked & Answered Podcast
My Mom Is Scheduled to Have a Heart Catheterization, Should I Be Scared?
On this episode of Asked and Answered, Dr. Alexander Postalian will describe a heart catheterization and the risks that are associated with the procedure.
Read More: www.texasheartmedical.org/our-specialties/cardiac-catheterization/
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Hello, my name is Alexander Ian. I'm an interventional cardiologist here at the Texas Art Institute in Houston, Texas. And welcome to Asked and Answered, where we try to answer, uh, patient questions that are common and some that are not so common. And, uh, hopefully we can make sense of, uh, some problems that some folks are having. My mom is scheduled to have a heart calf next week. Should I be scared? Okay. A heart catheterization in general is going in your arteries or veins with a calf, advancing it to your heart and either taking pictures of the arteries or checking the pressures inside your heart, which can be important to decide what medications you should be on and make some diagnoses. So it's a relatively common procedure. We do it in the hospital every day, so the overall risks are low. However, there are some risks. Um, and I think, uh, if you haven't had the discussion with your doctor, you should probably sit down and talk in detail about what the risks are, even though again, it's something we do almost every day. Well, this has been great. This has been a pleasure to be here. You know, I, I, I love doing this, so please send any questions. It can be anything cardiology related, high blood pressure, diet, medications, testing, valve issues, pacemaker issues, heart failure issues, uh, exercise, you know, questions about limitation or what can you do, et cetera. Um, just send it all. We'll be happy to look it over. Maybe they'll feature in our next, uh, session here. And again, this is a general discussion, so if you have any symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, it's always good to talk to your doctor and remember that every patient is an individual. So while we can make general recommendations in the end, we always make an individual recommendation for a specific patient. So when you're watching something, asking a question, just keep keep that in mind. We're giving you a general recommendation, but if you want a specific one, talk to your doctor.
