Ethics in interventional cardiology: combining coronary intervention with diagnostic catheterization.

As coronary intervention procedures have become more common, their performance at the time of diagnostic coronary arteriography has become more routine. Combined arteriography and coronary intervention may be slightly less costly and, for some patients, more dangerous than staged intervention. Combined intervention is appropriate in selected patients if they are well informed and it can be done safely; however, a combined strategy should not be applied to all patients.