[Development and current status of invasive coronary angiography]

Invasive selective coronary angiography as a clinical method is about 40 years old. This article surveying this period, written by an R&D engineer, deals with four parts: first the situation before 1965 is touched upon. For the time after 1965 the second and third parts describe the development of the procedure and of the technique with special reference to the work of Prof. Dr. K. Bachmann and to the facility, which in 1967 was designed together with him and further developed. K. Bachmann had already taken up the method of invasive coronary angiography around 1965, which makes him one of the group of pioneering users who developed the fundamentals of the procedure and led coronary angiography to its self-evident use today. The first clinical application of high resolution image intensifier with the input screen produced from evaporated cesium iodide in 1971 appears as one of the highlights of the continuous improvements of the facility. The fourth part of the article sketches the status of today and, considering the new methods using MRI, EBCT as well as CT, it predicts that the invasive coronary angiography will remain an indispensable method at least for the medium-term future.