Digital subtraction angiopulmography in children

The digital subtraction angiography has revealed the great potential of the angiographic diagnostics of children lung diseases with its intravenous introduction of contrast material, greatly reduced amount of the contrast agent used and the irradiation dose applied. Angiopulmography is one of the basic methods for proving the presence of malformations, their characteristic and degree of development. We did 29 digital subtraction angiographies in 13 children aged 2 months to 7 years. We found the following malformations: hypoplasia of one of the branches of a. pulmonalis with the other branch aneurysmally dilated, hypoplasia and agenesis of a lobar branch, confirmed also by digital bronchoradiography, lobar emphysema, mediastinal and pulmonary hemangiomatosis. In addition to the advantages given above the digital subtraction angiography reduces the trauma rate due to the possibility of avoiding catheterization by using peripheral venous pathways. It also allows both qualitative and quantitative processing of the image.