In which of the following departments of a hospital will ‘Cath lab’ be found ?

The correct answer is C) Cardiology. A Cath (catheterization) lab is the room where a thin catheter is threaded through an artery, usually the femoral or radial artery, to the heart. From there the team performs coronary angiography to diagnose blockages and angioplasty with stenting to treat them. These are interventional cardiology procedures, so the lab sits under the cardiology department.

• Pathology (A): It handles lab investigation of blood, tissue and fluids. It does not perform catheter-based procedures on patients.
• Surgery (B): Surgical units work in operating theatres for open or laparoscopic procedures. Cardiac surgery is a separate unit. Cath labs are non-surgical, though they resemble an OT.
• Nuclear Medicine (D): It uses radioisotopes for imaging such as PET or thallium myocardial perfusion scans. It does not involve catheter insertion.

For Mains, this links to cardiac care access under Ayushman Bharat and to the NPPA's 2017 price ceiling on coronary stents, which is a standard governance example of regulating medical devices.

Trap: Aspirants pick Surgery because the procedure looks like an operation, or Nuclear Medicine because the cath lab uses X-ray imaging. The test is what the procedure is for: a catheter-based cardiac intervention means cardiology.