Advances in Coronary Angiography, An Issue of Cardiology Clinics

Catheter-based or invasive x-ray coronary angiography is undergoing a profound change in large part because of the transition to a digital image format that now allows computer processing, 3-D reconstructions, advanced graphics and analysis, and multimodality fusion. 3D reconstruction of blood vessels is done in real time, providing an accurate picture of the vessels and their relationship to each other. This gives the physician much more detailed information for performing coronary interventional procedures, such as noninvasive valve repair with a stricture band.