During coronary angiography, youre kept on
your back and awake. That way, you can follow your doctors instructions
during the test. Youll be given medicine to help you relax. This medicine
may make you sleepy.
Your doctor will numb the area where the small
plastic tube (catheter) will enter the blood vessel through a small cut in the
arm, groin (upper thigh), or neck. The doctor then threads the catheter through
the vessel up to the opening of the coronary arteries. Special x-ray movies are
taken of the catheter as its moved up into the heart. The movies help
your doctor see where to position the tip of the catheter.
Your doctor will put a special dye in the catheter
when it reaches the correct spot. This dye will flow through your coronary
arteries and make them show up on an x ray. This x ray is called an angiogram.
If the angiogram reveals blocked arteries, your doctor may use
angioplasty
to restore blood flow to your heart.
After your doctor completes the angiography, or the
angiography and angioplasty, he or she will remove the catheter from your body.
The opening left in the blood vessel will then be closed up and bandaged. A
small sandbag or other type of weight may be put on top of the bandage to apply
pressure. This will help prevent major bleeding from the site.
The animation below shows the process of coronary
angiography. Click the "start" button to play the animation. Written and spoken
explanations are provided with each frame. Use the buttons in the lower right
corner to pause, restart, or replay the animation, or use the scroll bar below
the buttons to move through the frames.
The animation shows the step-by-step
process your doctor will follow to do a coronary angiography.