Each image at left is a link to an animated GIF. Some are rather large (almost 1M each), so be prepared to wait if you have a slow connection. This one is a very short animation, but it clearly shows the catheter coming up from the femoral artery (yellow bar), the angioplasty balloon (blue bar), and two catheter tips (red dots). The whole apparatus bounces around with my heart beat. I marked these still images myself; the annotations do not appear on the animated versions. [164kb]

Here, you can see the arteries fill up as the dye is released from the catheter tip into the blood. In the first few frames, you should be able to see the ends of the balloon as well—two black dots that eventually get covered by the dye. [612kb]

This one is great because you get a sense of the shape of the heart in 3 dimensions. Muscles and arteries do not show up on X-rays, but a dye is released into the blood here so you can see where blood flows through the coronary arteries. Since these arteries surround the heart, you get some sense of its shape. [620kb]

The yellow dots sit just below the balloon; you should continue to see it in this movie, even after its artery fills with blood. [824kb] Acknowledgments Thanks to Drs. Stephanie Wilson and Jason Kovacic, who performed this amazing procedure, and to Dr. Chris Allada who copied the images onto CD-ROM for me.

Where now? Read responses from some friends Skip to Victoria Back to my medical incident Up to Australia ’03

Published September 2003 Updated 3 October 2003

Visitor comments You may leave a comment on this page.