What is angiography?
Angiography is a type of X-ray used to check blood vessels. Blood vessels do not show clearly on a normal X-ray, so a special dye needs to be injected into your blood first that highlights your blood vessels, allowing your doctor to see any problems.
What is an angiogram?
The X-ray images created during angiography are called angiograms.
Why angiography is used?
Angiography is used to check the health of your blood vessels and how blood flows through them. It helps to diagnose investigate several problems affecting blood vessels, including: atherosclerosis( narrowing of the arteries), peripheral arterial disease, brain aneurysm – a bulge in a blood vessel in your brain, angina (chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart muscles), blood clots or a pulmonary embolism (a blockage in the artery supplying your lungs) or blockage in the blood supply to your kidneys.
What happens during angiography?
Angiography is done in a hospital X-ray or radiology department. For instance, during a coronary angiogram, a type of dye that’s visible by an X-ray machine is injected into the blood vessels of your heart. The X-ray machine rapidly takes a series of images (angiograms), offering a look at your blood vessels. If necessary, your doctor can open clogged heart arteries (angioplasty) during coronary angiogram.
During the procedure you simply lie on an X-ray table and a small cut (incision) is made over 1 of your arteries, usually near your groin or wrist. Some local anaesthetic is used to numb the area where the cut is made. After that, a very thin flexible tube (catheter) is inserted into the artery.
The catheter is carefully guided to the area that’s being examined (such as the heart)
Then dye (contrast medium) is injected into the catheter. A series of X-rays are taken as the dye flows through your blood vessels. The test can take between 30 minutes and 2 hours.
Occasionally, angiography may be done using scans instead of X-rays. These are called CT angiography or MRI angiography.
What are the types of angiography?
There are several different types of angiography. Some common types include: coronary angiography (to check the heart and nearby blood vessels), cerebral angiography (to check the blood vessels in and around the brain), pulmonary angiography (to check the blood vessels supplying the lungs), renal angiography (to check the blood vessels supplying the kidneys).
Another type of angiography that’s used to check the eyes, called fluorescein angiography.
Some more about coronary angiography
A coronary angiogram is a procedure that uses X-ray imaging to see your heart’s blood vessels. The test is generally done to see if there’s a restriction in blood flow going to the heart.
Coronary angiograms are part of a general group of procedures known as cardiac catheterizations. Cardiac catheterization procedures can both diagnose and treat heart and blood vessel conditions.
A coronary angiogram, which can help diagnose heart conditions, is the most common type of cardiac catheterization procedure.
During a coronary angiogram, a type of dye that’s visible by an X-ray machine is injected into the blood vessels of your heart. The X-ray machine rapidly takes a series of images (angiograms), offering a look at your blood vessels. If necessary, your doctor can open clogged heart arteries (angioplasty) during your coronary angiogram.
What are the risk factors during an angiography?
As with most procedures done on your heart and blood vessels, an angiogram has some risks, such as radiation exposure from the X-rays used.
Potential risks and complications include a heart attack, stroke, injury to the catheterized artery, irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias), allergic reactions to the dye or medications used. Organ damage, excessive bleeding can also occur.
