What is angiography?
Who should be subjected to this imaging method?
Cardiac angiography is a diagnostic method to check blood vessel blockages in the body.
They use this method to diagnose blood vessel blockages and various diseases.
This invasive method displays images from inside the vessels that can detect vessel narrowing and vessel blockage.
After the correct diagnosis, we start the treatment.
What is angiography?
Angiography is an invasive procedure that can be seen inside the vessels with the help of X-rays.
In this method, it is used to check the taken veins or blocked veins.
To see the inside of the vessels better, special angio dyes are used for the inside of the vessels. The doctor injects this dye into the veins so that he can see the inside of the veins more easily and diagnose the disease.
How is angiography performed?
First, long and hollow tubes enter the heart from one of the femoral or radial arteries.
The length of these catheters is one meter or more and the diameter of the catheters is approximately 2 mm.
After placing the catheter in one of the arteries, the doctor begins to check the hemodynamics of the heart.
So that the doctor can choose the most correct way of treatment.
When should angiography be done?
When a person has an acute heart attack or one of the main arteries is blocked or when the exercise test is positive, before heart surgery, angiography is performed to check the hemodynamic status of the heart and blood vessels.
Before a heart transplant, angiography is used to take samples of heart muscle tissue
How is angiography performed?
After receiving the tests and exercise tests from the patient, the doctor must choose whether she wants to perform diagnostic angiography or therapeutic angiography.
After diagnosis, treatment
If the angio is diagnostic, the doctor chooses the radial artery.
If it is therapeutic, the femoral artery is chosen
During the angiography, the patient is not anesthetized, but a sedative is injected into the patient, and the patient is awake during the angiography.
They create a very narrow groove on the femoral artery or radial artery, but before performing the incision, they numb the desired area so that the patient does not notice the pain.
Then the catheter is inserted into the artery. The length of this catheter is about 2 meters with an approximate diameter smaller than 2 mm.
At the same time, contrast dye enters the veins so that X-rays can easily pass through the veins and detect diseases.
The path of the catheter is towards the heart, your X-ray image is transmitted to the screen and the doctor can easily detect the blockage of the blood vessels.
and removes the blockage through the tools at his disposal.
The duration of angiography varies from half an hour to two hours.
After the angiography, the patient is observed in the hospital for 4-6 hours so that in case of arterial bleeding, the bleeding is stopped immediately.
After about 6 hours, if the patient has favorable conditions, he will be discharged.
Tip
If angiography is requested for children
To avoid stress, the child should be unconscious during the angiography.
Who should have angiography?
1- People who have blockage of blood vessels and if this blockage is not removed, they will suffer from heart attack, stroke, and pulmonary embolism.
2- People who have venous blood clots will suffer embolism if this thrombosis is not removed.
3- People who have chest pain and this pain extends to the neck, shoulder, and left hand
Tip:
People with kidney failure should not undergo angiography.
Since the contrast dye must pass through the kidneys and urinary tract during excretion, the kidneys are severely damaged.
Do you need home or hospital care after angiography?
After the angiography, it is better for a family member to stay with you for a few days so that if something goes wrong, they can immediately call the emergency room.
About a few hours after the angiography, you can start eating and drinking, this will help a lot to get rid of the contrast dye.
Try to rest for 7-10 days and avoid lifting heavy objects.
Do not do heavy sports.
Bruising and pain are normal after angiography, so you should rest at home when the pain and bruising are not resolved.
