Angiography Process: All You Need to Know

Posted on: Jun 6, 2025 | 3 mins | Written by: HDFC ERGO Team

Angiography Process: All You Need to Know

Angiography is a simple and minimally invasive procedure that takes about 15 minutes to 2 hours. Usually, doctors send you back home on the same day of the procedure. Angiography uses X-ray images (known as angiograms) to spot issues in your blood vessels. These issues could be blockages, narrowing problems, blood clots, etc.

The angiogram process helps diagnose coronary and peripheral artery diseases, blood clots and aneurysms (a condition of weak artery walls). The following blog gives you an overview of the steps involved in this process to prepare you well and remove the anxiety or fear in your mind about this process.

What is the Angiography Process?

Here are the steps involved in the Angiography process:

• The groin or wrist area, where the needle is inserted, is given local anaesthesia before a cut is made here.

• A catheter (a flexible tube thin enough not to disturb you) is carefully inserted into the artery in this area.

• Your doctor guides this catheter to the particular area that needs to be diagnosed.

• Once the doctor guides the catheter to the right location, a dye (contrast material) is inserted into your body through the catheter.

• As the dye flows through the blood vessels, it helps the doctor take different X-ray images of the affected areas.

• While doing this, if your doctor detects minor blocks in your blood vessels (less than 30%), he immediately performs an angioplasty. In this process, a balloon, or tube, is inserted to widen a narrow artery.

• After the angiography, your doctor gently removes the catheter from your body and applies pressure on the area through which the catheter was inserted. This will prevent severe bleeding in that area.

Important points to note:

• Usually, this process is not painful. You may feel a slight discomfort when the catheter is guided to the blood vessels or when the dye is injected through the catheter.

• In most cases, no risks are associated with angiography. However, in less than 1% of the cases, risks like excessive bleeding, kidney disorders, allergic reactions to the dye, blood vessel injury, abnormalities in the heart rhythm, etc. may be noticed. Speak to your doctor immediately in these cases.

Conclusion

When you have chest pain or other cardiac problems, your doctor may recommend you undergo an angiography. This test helps diagnose blockages, blood clots and narrowing of your blood vessels. Though this is a simple and painless process, always follow the safety precautions advised by your doctor before, during and after the angiography to recover quickly. A health insurance plan can help manage the costs of this treatment, making it a worthwhile consideration for financial preparedness.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purposes only. For more details, please refer to the policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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