Understanding Angiography and When you need It

There are many articles across the web to confuse a layman on what exactly Angiography means, what is the expected Angiography cost in India & major Indian cities.

Angiography is not a corrective surgery rather it is more of a Diagnostic procedure to help doctors better diagnose. Under this Coronary Angiography procedure, dye is injected into the arteries of the heart and then images are taken to identify the blockages or enlargement of arteries, also known as Angiogram.

We usually hear that now a day’s many people are referred to Angiogram. Neither it is to make money nor because of Hospitals/doctors trying to unnecessarily do a surgery, It is done to identify the type of blockage, if a blockage is of calcium deposit that happened over the years can be removed doing an Angioplasty procedure (explained in my other blog post) but as we have seen over the last few years most of the people have bad eating habits, sleep disorder and stress a major reason for such deposit and hence due to this the blockage is challenging to be removed through Angioplasty and doctors usually suggest to go for open-heart surgery.

List of things we can do to be sure if we need Angiography

Having worked in the Hospital industry as a healthcare administrator for many years & basis my interactions with multiple doctors, though if in the emergency rule of thumb, rest your doubt trust the doctor.  

1. If the patient is stable& not in an emergency but having Angina pain (pain near the heart)- Ensure you get an ECG done immediately and not after the pain stopped as it is not very helpful then. A regular ECG will cost not more than Rs. 500-800 even in big hospitals.  


2. 2D Echo – If you often feel pain in the chest, firstly do not at all think it is happening due to Gas or food indigestion(such pain don’t happen often) many people we see lose their life or get critical due to incorrect self-diagnosis at home if the pain is often time to get a 2D echo done.


3. Please ensure you just do not sit at home after the test, search& visit a hospital which has “ Cardiology Centre of Excellence”- This means the hospital has a full cardiac spectrum of doctors who can take care of any cardiac emergency.


4. Cardiac Enzymes Test – A secret superstar diagnostic test – This test should be done in 2 hrs.  post the pain has stopped but not later than 3 hrs. This test actually a marker test that can tell if the patient actually had any traces of Heart attack in the past few hours

In any regular hospital Angiogram cost in India is not more than Rs. 5,000 average with big hospital charging Rs. 9,500, there is also a way to get the Angiogram done for free. T& C apply 

As a mission to help improve transparency in healthcare, we build a platform called Shubhealth to help people know any detail about surgery or even to know how much surgery may cost you.