Comparison between intra-venous versus intra-arterial heparin during transradial coronary artery catheterization

Background: Trans-radial coronary artery catheterization is gaining popularity, heparin has been proven to reduce the rate of radial artery occlusion, intra-venous or intra-arterial heparin have no effect on the radial artery occlusion, we investigate the effect of route of heparin administration on different procedure related parameters. Methods: We randomized 150 consecutive patients to receive intra-venous (75 patients) or intra-arterial (75 patients) heparin; the two groups were compared regarding different procedure related parameters. Results: The success rate was over 99% and rate of radial artery spasm was about 5%. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the parameters tested. Conclusion: The trans-radial angiography can be performed successfully in the Saudi population, Studies with larger sample size are needed to show a significant difference between intra-arterial and intra-venous heparin administration.