The blood vessels inside or outside the brain at times get faulty, resulting into many devastating and life threatening situations.
A photoshoot of blood vessels is called angiography.
What's is Digital Subtraction Angiography ( DSA)
It is an ultra modern way of studying blood vessels , through a very tiny cannula in the hand or groin , a very tiny tube ( catheter ) is tracked into the different brain blood vessels , and a dye ( contrasted ) is injected in the blood vessels of interest.
Digital Subtraction Angiography is the most informative investigation anyone seriously interested in assessing diseases of blood vessels can ever have.
The finer details seen at digital subtraction angiography are showcased below , the names of the different vessels (black) are irrelevant even to the most curious reader.
We can luxuriously add or subtract the skull bones too , technology allows us.
Below, we see brain blood vessels in a side (lateral) view , with and without the skull bones , this is what digital subtraction angiography (dsa) is all about.
Who Needs Brain Digital Subtraction Angiography ( DSA) ?
- Bleeding into the brain.
- Treatment follow-up for brain aneurysms or brain AVM.
- Sudden collapse (syncope)
- Repeated strokes.
- Evaluation of brain aneurysms.
- Evaluation of brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).
- Evaluation of brain vessel narrowing (stenosis).
- Evaluation of brain fistulas.
- Suspected Inflammation of the blood vessels in the brain (vasculitis).
- Analysis of blood flow to head and neck tumors.
- Evaluate the arteries of the head and neck before surgery.
- Suspected clots in brain veins (cerebral venous thrombosis).
Some Classic Brain Digital Subtraction Angiography ( DSA)
Have you clearly seen the swelling on the brain blood vessel ( aneurysm ) ? , lest i mark it red.
Below are rotational views of the same
Brain digital subtraction angiography is a gold standard for any suspected brain vessel issues , it surely requires special equipment and skills to perform , and is unfortunately only available in a few centers across the world.
