An introduction to the catheter laboratory: key responsibilities and patient preparation

Coronary angiography began over 150 years ago, in 1844, when Claude Bernard catheterized a horse. Then in the 1920s, Werner Forssmann, a trainee surgeon in Germany, became the first human subject when he catheterized himself, documenting correct catheter placement by walking to the radiology department for a confirmatory plain film. Forssmann went on to share the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1956 with Andre Cournand and Dickinson Richards for their contributions to the development of cardiac catheterization.