What is The Difference Between Angioplasty & Angiography

Coronary Angiography and Coronary Angioplasty are both the procedures meant to diagnose heart disease i.e., coronary artery disease. However, both are not synonymous as they are done for different purposes:

Coronary Angiography

Coronary Angiography has two words “Coronary Angio” which means blood vessels of heart and “graphy” that relates to visualisation. So, if we sum up together this means visualisation of blood vessels which supply oxygen to our heart. Remember, it is a diagnostic procedure i.e., only a test not the treatment. 

Angiography is a day Cath procedure requiring admission for only a few hours as at present 90% of the time it is done by hand (Radial route rather than old conventional approach by Femoral route). an angiography if a blockage is found. This test uses X-rays in Cath lab to visualize blood vessels through which it helps doctors in identifying blockages, narrowing, or any other abnormalities in the heart’s blood vessels. It is done in patients with heart attack, in those with ongoing chest pain with or without serious risk factors like High blood pressure, diabetes, smoking or being overweight.

Coronary Angioplasty

Coronary Angioplasty means fixing (procedure that widens narrowed blood vessels) the narrowing or critical blockages in the coronary arteries. Unlike angiography it offers a definitive treatment and saves heart and life. It is mostly performed after making the diagnosis from angiography. Only the blockages with more than 70% narrowing are fixed and <70% lesions are dealt mostly with aggressive medications. The procedure consists of engaging the artery having narrowed passage with a specialised catheter and on a wire, balloon is taken across the site of blockage and inflated to open the artery, then at that location a metallic stent is deployed to minimise re-occlusion of the culprit artery.

How is Fortis helping in the treatment of Angioplasty & Angiography

We are doing large volume coronary angiographies and angioplasties at Fortis Hospital Jaipur, one of the best hospitals in India and treating our patients successfully at lowest affordable cost without compromising on quality. Besides this our Cardiac centre has an advanced Cath lab and all advanced modalities like Rota, IVL, IVUS and OCT to tackle complex lesions as well.

To summarise, Coronary Angio is an important diagnostic tool to find the narrowing of heart vessels and Angioplasty is a therapeutic one to fix the problem. They are complimentary but not synonymous.