In the context of today's ever-changing medical technology, coronary angiography, as an important means of diagnosing coronary heart disease, is becoming more and more widely used in clinical practice.
However, despite its accuracy, it is not suitable for all patients with heart disease and carries some risks.
Coronary angiography, known as the gold standard for diagnosing coronary heart disease, is based on interventional techniques to establish a channel between the patient's femoral artery or radial artery and the coronary artery and inject contrast agent, so as to clearly show the main branches of the coronary artery, judge whether there is stenosis or blockage, and determine the location and extent of the blockage.
However, because it is an invasive test, there are certain risks, such as allergic reactions, kidney damage, etc., and some patients with poor kidney function need to be carefully considered.
In addition, complications such as venous atrophy, hematoma, pseudoaneurysm and other complications may also occur during the operation, and may even affect the subsequent use of the radial artery, such as the traditional Chinese medicine trumpet pulse. Therefore, when recommending a patient for coronary angiography, doctors will fully consider the patient's specific situation and weigh the pros and cons.
Before a coronary angiogram, doctors usually recommend a series of basic tests to assess the patient's overall condition. These tests include electrocardiogram, cardiac ultrasound, and coronary CT.
What tests are usually done before a contrast test?
1. Electrocardiogram
Resting electrocardiogram (ECG): It is the most common examination in clinical practice, which can find the signal of the patient's heart activity changes and formulate relevant treatment plans, but its limitations are also relatively large, it can only show the heart signal at the time of examination, and if there is no disease at that time, it may not be able to clearly show the problem.
Holter ECG: also known as "treadmill exercise test", compared with resting ECG, it is more sensitive and accurate, and the cost is relatively low.
2. Cardiac color ultrasound
Cardiac ultrasound is a relatively comprehensive examination, which can see the changes in the structure, size and thickness of the heart, and can also understand the strength of the heart's ejection ability to assist in the diagnosis of heart failure.
3. Coronary CT
The plaque inside the coronary artery can be observed, and then the degree of vascular stenosis can be evaluated, giving doctors and patients a certain basis for judgment to distinguish whether the situation is critical, but compared with coronary angiography, its accuracy is not high, and it can only determine whether there is stenosis and blockage, but the degree and location cannot be clearly determined.
PS: Contrast is different from other examinations, it is an invasive examination method, which will bring certain dangers to the patient's body, and must be cautious and cautious.
Coronary angiography is indeed the gold standard for the diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease, but not everyone needs to be impaired when the heart is abnormal.
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