Right Heart Pressure Study (Diagnostic)

• For diagnosis of various abnormalities such as:

1. Heart failure
2. Congenital structural heart disease
3. Cardiomyopathy
4. Pulmonary hypertension
5. Heart transplant

• A pressure transducer that is on a pulmonary artery catheter is passed through the pulmonary artery and into the right side of the heart.
• Pressure measurements are taken along this path to measure the direct right heart pressure (atrium + ventricle).
• The indirect left heart pressure can also be determined, as well as the cardiac output.
• The patient may be administered medicine that act as a stressor to the heart in order to see the effects of cardiac stress.