Cardiologists at John Muir Medical Center, Walnut Creek Campus have begun using a new technique to diagnose and treat coronary artery disease—transradial cardiac catheterization.

"The transradial procedure involves threading a thin tube and wire through a wrist artery to locate and unblock clogged arteries in the heart," says John Krouse, M.D., a John Muir cardiologist. Relatively new in the United States, the procedure is used routinely in Europe and Canada.

The femoral artery in the groin has been the traditional entry site for diagnostic and therapeutic cardiac catheterization procedures, but the miniaturization of medical devices now allows doctors to also use smaller arteries, like the wrist's radial artery.

The transradial method offers greater comfort for patients because they can sit up and even walk around their room immediately after the procedure. Often these patients are discharged the day of the procedure. Dr. Krouse says that in contrast to other methods requiring overnight hospital stays, patients now usually go home three to four hours after a diagnostic procedure and six hours after a therapeutic procedure, such as angioplasty.

Using the transradial approach, all interventional procedures, including angioplasty, stents, rotational arthrectomy and ultrasounds, can be performed. The complication rate using the new method is at least as low as for the standard femoral technique, and patients who have had both procedures have preferred the transradial technique.

Patients with extremely small or tortuous arteries may not be candidates for the procedure, but for many patients, this method offers a safe, comfortable and efficient alternative to standard catheterization.