Heart Angiography


Heart Angiography

Heart angiography is the use of angiography to get x-ray pictures of the coronary arteries which are the arteries that supply the heart with blood. Heart angiography is also known as Coronary angiography. This procedure is administered by a cardiologist with training in radiology or, occasionally, by a radiologist.

Heart angiography technique  

The arterial puncture is typically made in the femoral artery, and the cardiologist uses a guide wire and catheter to perform a contrast injection and x-ray series on the coronary arteries. The catheter may also be placed in the left ventricle to examine the mitral and aortic valves of the heart. If the cardiologist requires a view of the right ventricle of the heart or of the tricuspid or pulmonic valves, the catheter is inserted through a large vein and guided into the right ventricle.

The catheter also serves the purpose of monitoring blood pressures in these different locations inside the heart.

The angiographic procedure takes several hours, depending on the complexity of the procedure.