ANGIOGRAPHY

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Angiography is a type of X-ray used to check blood vessels as blood vessels may not show clearly on a normal x-ray, so a special dye is injected into your blood. This causes your blood vessels to be highlighted, allowing your doctor to observe better. Angiography is used to check the health of your blood vessels and how blood flows through them.

This procedure can help diagnose several problems affecting blood vessels, such as:


  • Atherosclerosis: Which refers to the narrowing of the arteries, which could implicate a risk of having a stroke or heart attack. 

  • Peripheral arterial disease: Refers to the reduced blood supply to the leg muscles.

  • Brain aneurysm: It is a bulge in a blood vessel in your brain. 

  • Angina: This is referred to as 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.

  • A blockage in the blood supply to your kidneys. 


Types


There can be several types of angiography, based on the body part that will be tested.

Some common ones 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. 


What happens during the test?


You’re usually awake during the test but may be given a sedative to relax. You will be laid on the table and a small incision is made over one of your arteries, usually near your groin or wrist- local anesthetic is used to numb the area of the artery. 

A thin flexible tube, called the catheter is inserted into the artery and it is carefully guided to the area of examination, such as the heart, and dye is then injected into the tube.

A series of x-rays will be taken as the dye flows through your blood vessels. 

 

Risks of an angiogram procedure are

 

  • Bleeding.

  • Infection.

  • Pain.

Angiography is usually a safe procedure and involves quite a little pain. The side effects can be as minor as a bit of soreness, bruising, or a lump of blood around the incision but this only prevails for a few days or weeks. 

All said and done, it is still important to make sure that one approaches legitimate and good guidance for it.




Accounting for thorough experience and practice, Dr. Aritra Konar is a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, Kolkata. He has been deemed one of the best cardiologists in Kolkata for his expertise lies in Coronary (femoral & radial routes) angiography, Coronary angioplasty (including primary angioplasty), Peripheral angiography and angioplasty, BMV, BPV, Right heart catheterization and so on, in procedural skills. His guidance is trusted and so are his skills.

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