July 8, 2011 – Heart diseases are becoming so common today that the term angiography is no more a medical jargon. Angiography is also known as arteriography and it is the imaging technique to visualize the inside, particular the arteries, veins and heart chamber. Docturs.com/dd offers detailed explanation on angiography procedure and its types and risks.
The medical news about angiography is that the medical procedure was documented on film by the patient himself who was being operated upon and it won the BT Northern Ireland Press Photographer of the Year. The patient was given local anesthesia as he needed to stay awake and follow doctor’s instructions like taking deep breaths, cough or place their arms in various positions. Not exactly medical, but this trivia talks about the use of anesthesia in the angiography procedure.
The angiography first started with corrective bypass surgeries which have now progressed to the modern angioplasties and angiographies. Huge investments have been made behind these procedures to derive minimally invasive and innovative methods for the treatment of diseases. Angiography diagnoses cardiac diseases and reveals its complexity and the need for further surgical requirements. It can either be coronary artery bypass graft or modern angioplasties, requiring less time for operating and healing.
Angiography can be done for various parts of the body and hence they are of various types like extremity angiography, retinal angiography, cerebral angiography, renal angiography, coronary angiography, lymph angiography, pulmonary angiography. There are also different techniques like CT angiography, MR angiography and catheter angiography.
The catheter angiography is the most traditional kind of angiography, first to be introduced and dominant since its introduction. It includes the passing of catheter in the blood vessel leading to the desired area and injecting a contrast material for highlighting the diseased portion. The most commonly used catheters are Flush Catheters, Access Catheters, Sizing Catheters and others. MRA – Magnetic Resonance Angiography includes producing detailed pictures with the effect of radio waves in strong magnetic field. CTA – Computer Tomography Angiography uses X-rays and computerized analysis to produce high quality and detailed images, being minimally invasive, less time consuming and cost effective.
All these types of angiographies have their own pros and cons. The major drawback with catheter angiography is that it is invasive and so it always has an element of risk involved with it. Catheter angiography is painful and is very highly priced when compared to the other techniques of angiography. But the major advantage of this technique is that it can be used for all type of patients and for all body parts. MRA and CTA are both cost effective and painless. Thus these two new techniques are increasingly becoming a threat to traditional catheter angiography. Some of the drawbacks are that MRA cannot be used where patients have some iron objects inside their bodies. This is because the magnetic field may be disturbed due the presence of these objects and could result in blurred images. The drawback with CTA is that it cannot take detailed images of completely blocked and crowded vessels.
These methods have certain drawbacks that are undergoing further research for overcoming them to help their markets grow drastically. Docturs.com/dd is a medical vertical offering updates about all such studies and researches for better health awareness.
For more information visit http://docturs.com/dd/pg/groups/2355/angiography/
