Arteriography
Angiography is atype of X-ray used to check theblood vessels.
Blood vessels don't show up clearly on a normal X-ray, so a special dye needs to be injected into your blood first.
This highlights your blood vessels, allowing your doctor to spot any problems.
The X-ray images created during angiography arecalled "angiograms".
This page covers:
Angiographyis used tocheck the health of your blood vessels and how blood flows through them.
It can be used to help diagnose or investigate a number of problems affecting the blood vessels, including:
Angiographymay also be used to help plan treatment for some of these conditions.
Angiography is carried out ina hospitalX-ray or radiology department.
For the test:
The testcan take between 30 minutes and two hours. You'll usually be able to go home a few hours afterwards.
These are called computerised tomography (CT) angiography or magnetic resonance (MR) angiography.
There is also a type of angiography used to check the eyes called a fluorescein angiogram. This is different to the angiograms mentioned above and isn't covered in this topic.
Angiography is a type of X-ray used to examine the blood vessels. Find out why it's used, what it involves and what the possible risks are.
Find out how to get ready for angiogram, what happens during the procedure, and what happens afterwards.
Find out about the side effects and complications associated with angiography, and when to get medical help.