Hello racerjon. I had the right heart cath. You might not have read my post from June 19th. Thanks for following up.

Hello carolkel. I recently had a R heart cath thru the jugular vein in the neck and was told that they primarily do this to check pressures within the R side of the heart when they suspect pulmonary hypertension. The pain on insertion of the catheter was awful and it hurt the entire time during the test. They can do the R heart cath while awake and pedaling bike pedals to see if exercise causes the pulmonary pressure to abnormally rise. They discovered exercised induced hypertension during my test although that is not the primary reason that they to the test. They can also clip some heart tissue for a biopsy if they suspect inflammation or infection in the heart from a myocarditis. I had a left heart cath in 2006 thru the groin while awake. I felt no pain. I was told they do the left heart cath to primarily look for blockages in the coronary arteries and to identify the existence of anomalous arteries. They also measure pressures within the heart. If certain pressure are high it may indicate a problem with the heart valves. In 2006 I recovered from the left heart cath well and went home in a couple of hours. I hope this helps. Good luck with everything! Please let me know how things went if you decide to get the left heart cath. Thanks.