9. Interventional radiology (CATHLAB)

Angiography is a group of techniques for imaging blood vessels using a contrast agent, in this case iodine, to search for pathologies in the vascular or parenchymal network (in the absence of calcified arteriosclerotic plaques, only a few sections of the aorta and vena cava are slightly visible without a contrast agent – which makes it relatively easy to insert catheters into these vessels). It was born in 1953 with the first attempts at intravenous iodine injection with a catheter by Prof. Seldinger, followed in 1958 by the first images of the coronary arteries by Prof. Jones in Cleveland, using the femoral artery as an approach to introduce the catheter. Unless it passes through the heart, iodine dilutes very little and travels through the venous or arterial network in the form of a radiopaque bolus. Injection lasts two seconds (except in CBCT, where it is injected for around seven seconds),...