Coronary Angiography or Coronary Catheterization is a minimally invasive procedure to access the coronary flow and blood chambers of the heart using a catheter. It is a technique of medical imaging where an X-Ray is taken of the heart to visualize the inner opening of the arteries, veins and the four heart chambers, right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium and left ventricle. Angiography or angiogram requires the insertion of a catheter, a thin tube into a peripheral artery.
During Coronary Catheterization a patient’s blood pressure and X-Ray shadow grams of the blood in the coronary arteries are recorded. To record the X-Ray images, a cardiologist guides a catheter through the large blood arteries till the tip of the catheter reaches the opening of the coronary arteries. Catheters are made with a high radio density making it opaque to X-Rays allowing a clearer, blood compatible X-Ray dye to be selectively injected and mixed with the blood flowing in the artery. Without the X-Ray dye, the blood and internal structure of the heart is not clearly visible. The cardiologist activates the equipment to apply cine, a higher X-Ray dose when he/she is ready to record the diagnostic views. The diagnostic views can be saved and studied later.