Pulmonary angiography
Encyclopedia
Pulmonary angiography is a cardiological
Cardiology
Cardiology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart . The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology...

 medical
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 procedure. Pulmonary blood vessel
Blood vessel
The blood vessels are the part of the circulatory system that transports blood throughout the body. There are three major types of blood vessels: the arteries, which carry the blood away from the heart; the capillaries, which enable the actual exchange of water and chemicals between the blood and...

s are x-rayed to detect arteriovenous malformation
Arteriovenous malformation
Arteriovenous malformation or AVM is an abnormal connection between veins and arteries, usually congenital. This pathology is widely known because of its occurrence in the central nervous system, but can appear in any location. An arteriovenous malformation is a vascular anomaly. It is a...

s.

Direct angiography is the injection of radiocontrast
Radiocontrast
Radiocontrast agents are a type of medical contrast medium used to improve the visibility of internal bodily structures in an X-ray based imaging techniques such as computed tomography or radiography...

 into the circulation with subsequent fluoroscopy
Fluoroscopy
Fluoroscopy is an imaging technique commonly used by physicians to obtain real-time moving images of the internal structures of a patient through the use of a fluoroscope. In its simplest form, a fluoroscope consists of an X-ray source and fluorescent screen between which a patient is placed...

 (direct X-ray visualisation) of the lungs. A more common form of direct angiography, is the catheterisation of the right atrium of the heart and injection of radiocontrast into the right heart.

A popular form of pulmonary angiography is computed tomography
Computed tomography
X-ray computed tomography or Computer tomography , is a medical imaging method employing tomography created by computer processing...

 pulmonary angiography
(CTPA). This involves venous contrast only.

Invasive pulmonary angiography was first performed in 1931 by Egas Moniz
Egas Moniz
António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz , known as Egas Moniz , was a Portuguese neurologist and the developer of cerebral angiography...

and colleagues. Robb and Steinberg described pulmonary angiography by infusion of peripheral radiocontrast.

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