Left ventricular and coronary cineangiography; overview of techniques, applications and limitations

A brief historic overview of the basic angiographic procedures is given, for the left ventricular cineangiograms. The development of various clinically relevant left ventricular parameters, such as cardiac volume, regional wall motion and various wall motion models are described. The second part is devoted to the coronary cineangiography. The problems of inter- and intraobserver variations in the visual interpretation are discussed, as well as the number of projections required and further limitations in the assessment of the severity of a coronary lesion. An extensive overview on the physiologic significance of a coronary obstruction, the hemodynamic aspects as well as the discrepancies between relative obstruction measures and its functional significance is presented. (Auth.)