Heart Artery Disease

• Introduction
• Chest pain
  • Angina
  • Other chest pain
• Heart attack (myocardial infarction)
  • Introduction
• Assessment of the heart arteries
  • Treadmill stress test
  • Stress echocardiogram
  • Stress nuclear studies
  • Angiogram- invasive
  • Angiogram- CT
• Treatment of heart artery disease
  • Medication
  • Stent treatment
  • Heart bypass surgery

Angiogram- Invasive

This test is performed by introducing small tube into a large artery- usually at the top of the leg.

Longer tubes (catheters) can then be passed into the artery and pushed up to the heart- this is painless. X-ray dye is injected into the heart arteries and X-ray pictures taken.

This provides high quality images of the heart arteries. The test does involve exposure to radiation. The invasive nature of the test is also associated with a very small risk of serious complications. The test is recommended when the benefits are outweighed by the risk.

The test may be recommended after other tests, such as a treadmill test, have been abnormal and more detailed information is required to plan the best treatment.