Is digital angiography making a comeback?

Digital subtraction angiography was introduced during the late 1970's as a method to reduce patient risk and health-care costs by reducing the amount of contrast media for angiography. Today it is clear that intravenous digital subtraction angiography is limited in clinical application due to often insufficient image quality. Intra-arterial DSA has proved to be the method of choice for evaluating over 90 percent of all angiographic problems. It is the only procedure on which contemporary interventional angiographic procedures are based. Technical advances have made it possible to perform digital angiography without subtracting bone structures, or subtracting them only in part. This technique enables radiologists to perform digital studies even for patients not able to cooperate fully. For surgeons, the anatomical background provides better topographic information about the location of the lesion.