MedCentral’s heart catheterization laboratories are staffed with certified professionals and state-of-the-art equipment. Cardiac catheterization (also called cardiac cath or coronary angiogram) is an invasive imaging procedure that allows your doctor to “see” your heart anatomy and how well it is functioning. During the test, a long, narrow tube, called a catheter, is inserted into a blood vessel in your arm or leg and guided to your heart with the aid of a special X-ray machine. Contrast dye is injected through the catheter so that X-ray movies of your valves, coronary arteries, and heart chambers can be created.  Cardiologists perform several interventional, or therapeutic, procedures to open blocked arteries after the diagnostic part of the cardiac catheterization is complete. Interventional procedures include balloon angioplasty, cutting balloon and stent placements. The procedures are performed in the cardiac catheterization laboratory by a cardiologist and a team of cardiovascular nurses and technicians. MedCentral has decreased the time it takes to get heart attack patients from the emergency room to the cardiac cath lab to open the blocked vessel. This is known as the doorto-balloon time (D2B). The faster the blood starts flowing to the heart, the better a patient’s chance for recovery. MedCentral has annually exceeded national benchmarks for D2B. To help achieve this, the cardiologist and cardiac cath lab staff are available around the clock.