Tests and treatments: Angiograms and angioplasty
Angiograms and angioplasty
An angiogram is a test to find out which arteries supplying the heart have become narrowed. An angiogram uses X-rays to show 'route maps' of blood vessels and arteries in the heart. Angiograms also give detailed information about heart function as well as blood pressure, and oxygen levels in the blood as it passes through the heart. Angioplasty is a procedure to expand narrow arteries that may follow on from an angiogram. Both procedures are done in hospital under local anaesthetic. Many people we talked to had experienced angiograms and a few had had angioplasty (for more information see British Heart Foundation).
Most people had been reassured by nurses during an angiogram and said that the dye gave them a warm sensation. Most were pleased to have had the test and one woman said she would have liked an angiogram earlier on in her treatment. Some said the test had not worried them at all and talked about the number of monitors and technicians required for the procedure; one man remarked that his doctors seemed excited about his angiogram and told him he was lucky to be alive. Several people had found the procedure rather uncomfortable and said that keeping still for the length of time required had been tiring and one woman said that her angiogram had taken longer than she expected.
Angioplasty is a procedure performed by a physician which involves inserting a small inflatable balloon into a narrowed artery (for more information see British Heart Foundation). Sometimes angioplasty may also involve the insertion of a stent (a short tube of expandable mesh) into a narrowed artery. Angioplasty may not be suitable for everyone. Someone who was fitted with a drug-eluting stent a year after heart by-pass surgery, said that it had made her feel much better, though she wondered with hindsight how long the stent would last. A man who had had a heart attack in the US underwent emergency angioplasty which he recalled in detail. He thought that there seemed to be a shortage of specialist staff and equipment in the UK which had delayed him getting treatment when he needed it.
Heart Failure patients with “hibernating myocardium’ (where the heart muscle lies dormant due to impaired oxygen supply) are often offered angioplasty. People with unexplained heart failure or heart failure which worsens without reason should be investigated and they may benefit from angioplasty and stenting or best of all from coronary artery bypass grafting. The effect can be dramatic and life–prolonging (see
Heart Failure Matters).
Can all hospitals do angiograms and angioplasties?
How long do most stents last?
What is special about a drug-eluting stent?
Last reviewed March 2010.
Last updated March 2010.
