KNOW WHAT IS ANGIOGRAPHY AND HOW IT IS PERFORMED
CORONARY ANGIOGRAPHY- A WIDELY USED DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURE FOR HEART PATIENTS
Coronary arteries, which are heart blood vessel that carries oxygenated blood to whole heart alongwith all required nutrients to heart muscle. Any obstruction to blood flow in coronaries will drasticalyl redure the blood flow and make the heart muscle deprived of oxygen rich blood. patients with heart attack has obstruction in one or more of such vessels. so angiography, a diagnsotic procedure to look for obstruction in coronary artery helps cardiologist decide the furthur treatment plan. The diagnostic catheter reach at the origin of these coronary artery and then dye is injected to look for degree and site of obstruction. As it is an invasive procedure, it also has some complications which should be thoroughly read before proceeding such procedure.
The route via which cardiologist enter the body may be radial artery of upper limb or femoral artery of leg. most of the angiography procedure are now done via radial artery access. The is catheter is a long hollow pipe like hardware throughwhich angiography is performed. A coronary wire is passed through hole in it.to fit the end of catheter to coronary origin. after looking at all hemodynamics if good, then dye is injected which stains the whole feeding coronary. The cardiologist then looks at whole image to find out the diseased segement of coronary. depending upon the degree of obstruction and other parameters, patient may need to undergo angioplasty which is putting a stent to reopen the blockages.
nearly all patients who has a heart attack requires to undergo such procedure to look the anatomay atleast.
After the procedure is over, the entery site is closed. If radial artery access is used then patient could be mobilised early and if femoral artery is used then patient may require one day hospitalisation.