Pulmonary angiography


Pulmonary angiography is medical fluoroscopic procedure used to visualize the pulmonary arteries and much less frequently, the pulmonary veins.
Conventional pulmonary angiography is a minimally invasive procedure performed most frequently by an interventional radiologist or interventional cardiologist. This form of angiography has the added benefit of the ability to treat certain conditions.
CT pulmonary angiography has nearly entirely replaced conventional pulmonary angiography in common practice as it is less invasive, faster, safer, and provides most of the same diagnostic information with the added benefit of visualizing the lung tissue as well as other structures. Nevertheless, it is still used in cases where CT angiography is nondiagnostic.

History

Conventional pulmonary angiography was first performed in 1931 by Portuguese angiography pioneers Lopo de Carvalho, Egas Moniz and colleagues. Robb and Steinberg described pulmonary angiography by infusion of peripheral radiocontrast.