Cardiac angiography is a method that helps to check the amount of blood flow in the vessels, the vessels that lead to the heart are coronary vessels, these vessels actually carry oxygenated blood to the heart muscle from where it is pumped to the whole body. and perform the task of supplying oxygen to the body, in some cases the accumulation of fat or plaques that contain fat and some other elements in the blood are deposited on the walls of these coronary vessels (atherosclerosis), in this way, by reducing blood flow, they can lead the patient to risks such as angina or a heart attack.
In cases where the doctor considers the possibility of plaque accumulation in the vein to be probable according to the patient’s symptoms, and of course after performing other diagnostic tests that make him more suspicious of this blockage, he uses the angiography method of the heart vessels for investigation.
Who needs cardiac angiography:
Currently, the most important thing is angiography in emergency patients. Patients who come to the emergency room with severe and acute chest pain and in the first stage of a heart attack should be immediately transferred to the angiography department and an emergency angiography should be performed, and if necessary, the blocked vessel should be opened with a stent (spring).
Patients with recent onset of chest pain and initial investigations showing severe coronary artery stenosis should undergo angiography as soon as possible.
Patients whose initial examinations such as exercise test or heart scan show severe and important disease of the heart vessels, should also undergo angiography to determine the definitive diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan. Angiography is usually not recommended for patients who are not diagnosed with a severe disease and do not have severe heart symptoms because aggressive treatments such as balloon and surgery do not have much effect on prognosis and reduction of complications.
Patients who need heart surgery for any reason (such as valve replacement) need to determine the condition of the heart vessels by angiography before the operation.