This film will show you what to expect if you are having a coronary angiogram
sometimes called a cardiac catheterization
my name is Alan Price and I'm from
Derbyshire and I'm here today for a cardiac angiogram
The procedure today is straightforward
and will explain in a little more
detail about what happens next.
It's a straightforward operation, no reason to worry at all.
I'm Jaydeep Sarma,
I'm a consultant interventional cardiologist at the Northwest heart center,
in Wythenshawe hospital in South Manchester
So a coronary angiogram is an X-ray based
set of pictures that we take of the heart
and in particular the coronary arteries.
the procedure is done under local anaesthetic
either into the skin around the wrist artery, or sometimes into the skin around the top of the groin.
depending on which artery we need to use.
we do more and more of these procedures using the wrist artery these days
because we want to get people up and about, it adds convenience for the patients.
What we'll do is we'll let that work its way in while we're setting all our other equipment up.
When you have coronary heart disease
fatty deposits build up on the inner walls of your coronary arteries
causing narrowing or blockages which restrict blood flow to your heart.
a coronary angiogram helps identify
if you have these narrowings and shows how severe it is
A catheter (thin flexible tube)
is passed into your artery through your groin or arm
and then up to your heart. A special dye called contrast
will then be passed through the catheter so that your arteries show
on the X-ray. A series of x-rays will then be taken
to locate any narrowing in your arteries.
We put a very small needle into the artery
again, either the groin or the wrist, and use that needle to feed a tiny wire
into the artery. That allows us to put a plastic tube
over the wire, removing the needles and then
that plastic tube allows us to inject liquid dye into the arteries
allowing us to see the course of the arteries on the x-ray machine
What we're doing now is just manipulating the catheter into the right position,
to take a picture of the right coronary artery
People generally feel a little bit of pressure but not discomfort when the
tubing is being moved inside the arteries often with the arm
sometimes around the leg area. Some people complain of
feeling hot or flushed when the dye is being injected
but generally speaking most people aren't aware of the fact that their heart
arteries are being filmed and the x-rays are actually being taken.
Very good indeed there are a few irregularities but nothing untoward
A diagnostic angiogram is generally very straightforward
very well organised procedure and normally it would take in the region
of 10 to 15 minutes to get the pictures
most people who have a diagnostic procedure do so as a day case
so they can go home that afternoon or evening. The main complication people
suffer from is bruising or bleeding from the point of access
either into the wrist or groin where the tubing's inserted.
So overall the risk of any major complications is extremely low.
Having had
the angiogram I'm sitting here now feeling
no bad ill effects whatsoever.
I could go home two hours after it, it's as simple as that.
My hopes for the future
are to return to the outdoor lifestyle I led,
which will be walking in the hills and I see no reason why that's not achievable.
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