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After studying your medical history, it has
been determined by your physician — in consultation
with your radiologist — that an angiogram is the appropriate
diagnostic examination for you. This page is intended to
provide you with information about the procedure.
An angiogram is a diagnostic procedure that
literally means taking X-rays of the blood vessels. During
the examination, your radiologist will insert a catheter
(plastic tube) into the arteries to determine where the vessels
are and whether they are open, closed, narrowed or diseased.
The procedure will help determine whether treatment is needed.
Performed in the special procedures room of the Radiology
Department, an angiogram requires the use of highly specialized
equipment, including fluoroscopic and television monitors,
heart monitoring equipment and an injector to introduce dye
into the catheter. Your radiologist has extensive technical
training and knowledge needed to perform the procedure.
Because you will be awake during the examination,
you will be able to ask questions or relate any difficulties
that you may be experiencing during the examination. Please
ask questions if there is anything about the procedure that
has not been explained or you do not understand.
Before an angiogram is performed, an area either
in your groin or arm is shaved, cleaned and anesthetized,
or “frozen,” with a local anesthetic. A catheter
then is inserted into the artery through this numbed region.
Using the television monitor, this catheter is manipulated
to the area where the arteries of concern are to be X-rayed.
This tubing has holes in the end of it through which the
iodine dye is injected. As the blood mixes with the dye and
carries it through the arteries, X-rays will be taken.
You will feel the initial needlestick anesthetizing
the skin. The introduction and manipulation of the catheter
is totally painless. You may experience mild discomfort during
the dye injections. The radiologist will instruct you more
specifically as to what to expect and where you will feel
the sensation.
The radiologist has the option of changing
the type of catheter being used and actually manipulating
this tubing into a specific artery and then taking additional
X-rays of a more localized area. Again, the radiologist will
instruct you beforehand as to what to expect.
Because the length of the exam depends on many
intangible factors, such as whether the arteries themselves
are normal and what, if anything, is found on the initial
X-rays, your radiologist cannot say with certainty how long
it will take. However, it is important to remember that you
should be fairly comfortable and painfree.
Following the angiogram, you will be required
to lie in bed for approximately five to six hours, which
allows time for the puncture site to heal. The radiology
nurse will give you additional instructions on your care
while confined to bed.
While angiograms are performed daily in most
hospitals on patients of every age group — from newborns
to the elderly people — no procedure of this type is
without risk. The incidence of complications or risk is variable,
depending on such things as the patient’s age, the
underlying disease or the presence of other problems, such
as high blood pressure, diabetes, among others. Your physician
and radiologist are aware of any potential complications
and will discuss them with you. You also will be instructed
to carefully read and sign an informed consent form, which
lists most of these complications.
, please contact
one of our radiologists by calling the Department of Radiology
at 732-923-6800 or the medical physicist at 732-923-6811.
Click
here for the informational brochure (pdf),
available as a PDF (portable document format) file.
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