[Incidents after direct (percutaneous) carotid artery angiography (with special reference to pathomorphologic...

The paper reports on incidents after direct (percutaneous) carotid angiography. Since the occurrence of the symptoms after the intervention, which was often carried out in patients who were seriously ill, could individual cases only be considered with a certain probability as a consequence of the angiography, our own frequency data are not given. From Juli 1966 to the end of 1978, we carried out a total of 1228 direct carotid angiographies in 1086 patients at our establishment; in 11 persons who died after such an intervention had been carried out, local, sometimes massive pathomorphic findings, in three cases with cerebral complications, were recorded. The necessity of the presence of a correct indication for the performance of this diagnostic method, to which under adequate conditions catheter angiography and--where possible--other diagnostic procedures involving fewer risks should be preferred, is pointed out.