Complications of Intravenous Digital Subtraction Angiography

Cerebral angiographic risk in mild cerebrovascular disease.

“…Chest pain significant enough to terminate angiography developed in 23 patients, and eight patients had acute shortness of breath. Symptoms that Ball et al 18 recorded as neurologic complications consisted of light-headedness in five (1.0%), headache in five (1.0%), syncope in two, transient loss of vision in one, seizure in one, and progression of hemiparesis to completed stroke in one patient. The vast majority of the authors' "neurologic complications" were nonfocal events that may not have been considered neurologic complications in other studies or even noted in several retrospective studies.…”

“…Ball et al 18 compared complications related to IV-DSA in 500 patients with those related to conventional angiography in 150 patients, all referred for evaluation of "extracranial carotid occlusive disease" in 1982 and 1983. Selection of the angiographic procedure for each patient was nonrandom.…”

Migraine and Non‐Migraine Headaches Following Diagnostic Catheter‐Based Cerebral Angiography

“…The overall combined total neurologic complication (predominantly transient ischemic attack or stroke) and mortality rate was 4.1% (95% Cl 3.3–5.0%). Only one study included in review, Ball et al reported that 1% of the patients who underwent cerebral angiography developed headaches (without further characterization). The review noted that there was considerable variability in ascertainment of non‐focal neurological events between studies and retrospective studies are inadequate for ascertainment of such events.…”

“…The overall combined total neurologic complication (predominantly transient ischemic attack or stroke) and mortality rate was 4.1% (95% Cl 3.3-5.0%). Only one study included in review, Ball et al 7 reported that 1% of the Conflict of Interest: The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose.…”

Intravenous 3D Digital Subtraction Angiography in the Diagnosis of Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms

“…IV DSA is generally a very safe procedure with low morbidity, 2 but there have been a few descriptions of the extravasation of contrast material during IV DSA because of its high rate of injection. 9 This complication occurs in approximately 5.2%, with an infusion rate of 14 mL/s. 10 In our series, the rate was adjusted to 9 mL/s, which was less than in Pinto et al 10 , and we did not experience extravasation of contrast material during IV 3D DSA, or other complications.…”