About Pullback Log
Pullback Log is a free, independent study site for people preparing for CCI’s RCIS exam, the Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialist credential: cath-lab technologists, nurses, respiratory therapists, radiologic technologists and paramedics who work in invasive cardiology. Every page follows the five domains of the outline CCI publishes, and every practice case comes from a question bank that was audited item by item.
Who the site is for
You are the reader if you qualify by one of the three routes CCI lists: a health-science program plus a year of full-time invasive work and 600 procedures (RCIS235), an accredited invasive cardiovascular program (RCIS4), or a non-accredited one with a year of specialty training and 800 clinical hours (RCIS5). The requirements page sets out all three with their source. The exam asks 170 questions in 3 hours, and only 150 scored questions count, so the pages are short rows you can read between cases.
How the practice cases are built
Start from the outline
The map is the content outline used for exams from July 1, 2024: five domains, from 5% to 40% of the scored items. Space on the site follows those weights, so Diagnostic Procedures (B) and Interventional Procedures (C) get the most.
Use only the audited bank
Each case comes from the question bank behind our RCIS app. In September 2026 that bank went through a line-by-line audit: every answer key was re-checked, keys that disagreed with current resuscitation guidance, vascular-access landmarks or radiation-dose physics were rewritten, and weak distractors were replaced with mistakes people really make in the lab.
Explain every option
Each of the four options carries a note: why the key is right and what the other three get wrong. Calculation cases show the working line by line, with units.
Date every exam fact
Format, scoring, fees and pass rate come from CCI’s own pages, with a link and a check date. Figures that move are never printed bare: $365, including a $100 non-refundable application processing fee (CCI, checked October 2026).
Sources the site checks against
Exam facts: CCI’s RCIS page (CCI source, checked October 2026), its FAQ for retakes and pass rates (CCI source, checked October 2026) and its self-assessment page (CCI source, checked September 2026). Clinical content is checked against the texts CCI points candidates to: Grossman & Baim (Moscucci), Darovic's Hemodynamic Monitoring, the Kern/Sorajja/Lim Cardiac Catheterization Handbook, and Watson & Gorski's Invasive Cardiology. Where a case rests on a guideline, its explanation names it.
What Pullback Log is not
Not CCI. The site is not run by, sponsored by or endorsed by Cardiovascular Credentialing International. None of the cases are CCI exam items, and the domains and task codes are described in our own words, not copied from the outline.
Not a course. There are no classes, no instructors and no pass promise, and no patient-care advice: the cases teach what the exam tests. RCIS is a voluntary professional credential at registry level, not a state license; many employers require or prefer it.
Where to start
The overview has the exam at a glance, the study guide turns the domain weights into a week-by-week plan, and the practice test runs timed cases at about a minute each, the pace the real exam sets. If you do one thing this week, take the practice test cold and read the option notes on every case you missed. That list of misses is your study plan.
Keep the log going
Work the free case run here, then carry the full RCIS bank with you: the app sorts questions by the same five domains and keeps the explanation for every option.