Washington — Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, was taken to a hospital Monday as a "precautionary measure," President Bush said.
Cheney, 60, suffered a heart attack in late November but quickly resumed a full schedule after an operation to fix a blocked artery.
One of his heart arteries was 90 percent blocked, so doctors implanted a wire scaffolding-like device called a stent to push away the blockage and prop open the artery walls.
It was his fourth heart attack since he was 37. In 1988, he had quadruple bypass surgery to clear clogged arteries.
Cheney went to the hospital after suffering mild chest pains, aides said.
Adviser Mary Matalin said Cheney was undergoing a "cardiac catheterization" at George Washington University Hospital to determine what was causing the chest pains. "They're going in to take a look," she said. "Details to follow."
Bush confirmed that Cheney was in the hospital, calling it "precautionary measure."
In her statement, Matalin said Cheney checked himself into the hospital "for a repeat cardiac catheterization after experiencing two brief, mild episodes of chest discomfort. This is a non-emergency precautionary procedure. An EKG obtained at the White House this afternoon was unchanged from one obtained last Thursday."
In a telephone interview, Matalin said the EKG last week was part of a normal followup to the heart attack Cheney suffered late last year.
She said Cheney reported the discomfort to his doctor, who advised the vice president to have the new procedure done.
After his last heart attack, Cheney's doctors said the accumulation of disease had left his heart moderately damaged. Other heart experts said Cheney was at higher risk for further heart attacks than the average person his age and he needed to take such protective steps as losing weight.
Cheney late in November revealed that his blood pressure was an excellent 106 over 80. He was taking cholesterol-lowering medicine that had kept his total cholesterol level around a good 170, he said. However, he didn't reveal levels of so-called bad cholesterol and triglycerides, more important than total cholesterol counts.
Asked if he feared another heart attack, Cheney said: "I don't operate that way. ... I look forward to several more years."
A few days after his November heart attack, Cheney demonstrated his back-to-business mindset when he responded to questions about his health by jumping up and down and pumping his arms.
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