Angiography: The Procedure

Angiography is an imaging technique which helps to get an x-ray reading of blood vessels and the organs of the body. Angiography, also known as arteriography, mainly focuses on arteries, veins and heart chambers. The term has etymologically Greek with the roots “angeion” meaning vessel and “graphein” meaning to record.

The traditional method is to apply a radio-opaque essence, or dye, to compose the blood vessels visible under x-ray. Angiography is done using x-rays catheters, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. There are many kinds of angiographies and two of them are coronary angiography related to the heart and cerebral angiography related to the cerebrum, the brain. 

 

Coronary angiography emphasizes on the inside of the coronary arteries shown by the special x-rays using dyes. It is done to examine the narrowing of coronary arteries supplying oxygen-rich blood to the heart. Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) or Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is when a material call plaque builds up inside the coronary walls and narrows them.

Angiography is generally harmless with rare major complications but the potential risks may be heart attack, stroke, trauma to artery, irregular heart beats, allergies to dye or medication, perforation of heart or artery, kidney damage, excessive bleeding, infection, blood clots and radiation exposure from the X-rays. Celebral Angiography helps to visualize the medical images of the blood vessels surrounding the brain allowing the detection of abnormalities. This was pioneered by Egaz Moniz in 1927.