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SCIENTISTS who made medical advances by putting their bodies on the line. this week: Werner Forssmann and heart procedures. CARDIAC catheterisation — a widely used procedure where a small tube is inserted into a blood vessel that leads to the heart to diagnose or treat heart conditions — was first used in 1929 when German scientist Werner Forssmann tested the procedure on himself.

Under local anaesthesia, he inserted a catheter through a vein on his forearm into his heart and took an X-ray photo to confirm the position.

This was a very risky procedure but after seeing that it had been performed successfully on animals, Forssmann became convinced that humans could undergo it, too.

Forssmann would go on to win the Nobel Prize in 1956 for paving the way for many types of heart treatments and tests.