Cerebral Angiography Medical Test

Cerebral angiography is used to image the blood vessels of the brain and the blood flowing through them. Cerebral angiographies show the brain's blood vessels. It is usually done after another test has already detected an abnormality. The test is most frequently used to confirm cases of stroke, tumor, bulging of the artery walls, a clot, a narrowing of the arteries, and to evaluate the arteries of the head and neck before a corrective surgery. The test is always carried out in hospital and usually means an inpatient stay of two nights. The arteries are not normally seen in an x-ray, so a special material, called contrast dye, is injected into one or more arteries to make them visible. For a cerebral angiography, the contrast dye is injected into one or both of the carotid arteries in the neck. It is used to get more exact information after something abnormal has been detected by an CT scan of the head such as bleeding within the brain. Most vascular abnormalities of the brain, e.g. arteriovenous malformations and aneurysms, can be detected on cerebral angiography. In some countries, cerebral angiography is required to confirm brain death.

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