[Invasive diagnosis of coronary heart disease: recent developments in coronary angiography]

Coronary angiography as a diagnostic procedure has been increasingly perfected over the last 25 years. Technical and pharmacological developments have revealed several new aspects of coronary angiography. The optical and spatial resolution of coronary lesions has been enhanced by improvement of X-ray equipment and the introduction of biplane isocentric coronary angiography with hemiaxial views. Functional diagnosis of coronary arteries has been improved by the introduction of selective pharmacological methods, especially in the search for coronary spasms. The latest development is the introduction of coronary angiography as a therapeutic procedure for intracoronary thrombolysis in evolving myocardial infarction and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty.