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.

Angiography - Knowing The Top Medical Term

Angiography is a technique of examining the internal organs of the human body. Normally during the angiography procedure, veins, arteries and heart chambers are normally scrutinized. The angiography process can be divided into many types like cerebral angiography, x ray study blood vessels, pulmonary angiography, coronary angiography, kidney angiography as per the patients' requirement.

One of the most common types of angiography is Coronary angiography. It is done to envisage the blood in the coronary arteries. In this form of angiography a long, thin, flexible tube called a catheter is utilized to manage the x-ray disparity agent at the desired area. It is then beaded into an artery in the groin or forearm.

Angiography - The peek inside the Heart

The word Angiography reminds of the graph with haphazard lines going up and down with the pulse rate of the heart. But angiography has nothing to do with graphs. It is medical photography in simple terms. Medically, it is an imaging technique using X-ray examination of blood vessels or heart chambers including veins and arteries.

The roots of this word can be traced back to Greek language with angeion meaning ‘vessel’ and graphein meaning ‘to write or record’. The process is called angiography or arteriography and the image is called angiograpgh or angiogram. This technique was first developed in 1927 by Portuguese physician and neurologist Egas Moniz.

The percentage of complications in coronary angiography is as low as 1 in 1000. Death, myocardial infarction, stroke serious ventricular arrhythmia, and major vascular complications each occur in less than 1% of patients undergoing catheterizations. These include Cardiac arrhythmias, kidney damage, blood clots (which can cause heart attack or stroke), hypotension and pericardial effusion and many more. Whatever may be the complications, the improved technology leaves negligible scope for error. The improved technology not only includes machines but also virtual online doctors who help us in many different ways.