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Digital subtractive angiography
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
A new method of X-ray examination of vessels is digital subtraction angiography (DSA). It is based on the principle of computer subtraction of two images recorded in the computer memory - images before and after the introduction of a contrast agent into the vessel.
Thanks to computer processing, the final radiographic image of the heart and blood vessels is of high quality, but the main thing is that it allows you to select the image of the vessels from the general image of the body part being examined, in particular, remove interfering shadows of soft tissues and the skeleton and quantitatively assess hemodynamics. A significant advantage of DSA compared to other methods is the reduction in the required amount of radiopaque agent, so you can get an image of the vessels with a large dilution of the contrast agent. This means that you can inject the contrast agent intravenously and get a shadow of the arteries in the subsequent series of images without resorting to their catheterization. Currently, conventional angiography is almost universally replaced by digital subtraction angiography.
It should be noted that due to the development of other, alternative methods of vascular visualization, in particular, computed tomography, magnetic resonance and ultrasound angiography and Doppler mapping, the frequency of performing angiography in clinical practice has significantly decreased.
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