What is the best way to find blockage in heart other than angiogram ?

Answer 1

Run real fast for as long as you can. If you die, your heart is clogged.

Seriously, the mri will tell you and I understand there is a relatively new process that involves ultrasound. Neither are invasive like the archaic angiogram.

Answer 2

Assuming the question is geared towards a real life situation-
Although an MRI is a visual diagnostic aid, just as an angiogram is, last I knew, MRI was not consistently rendering optimal images of the heart. MRI takes a series of still frame slices, in this case, of a moving object. The slices therefore must be timed accurately and the assumption is that the heart moves to and fro in exactly the same planes and along the same distance each time.
Assuming science has perfected this test, you must also be capable of lying "perfectly" still in a narrow tube with less space than a coffin.

IF science has improved immensely in this scan, it wouldn't explain why many false positives appear on renal (kidney) arteries (also a moving target to image accurately due to even small amounts of breathing or swallowing motion). In other words, the MRI shows a stenosis (narrowing) but the follow-up angiogram proves this to be negative. Angiography always follows because it IS the "Gold Standard"- the most accurate test available.

There are other tests available that are routinely used to evaluate the signs/symptoms which present but, in the long run, they will always lead to an angiogram if there is any indication of a positive finding. Even a negative finding based on a "classic presentation" (history and physical; signs and symptoms) will often coax a physician to schedule an angiogram anyways because of the known degrees of uncertainty in the previous tests which relate to you and your situation.

I trust you want an accurate answer, not just an answer.
You want to be assured that the answer you receive has the highest accuracy available so a 'positive' finding doesn't needlessly worry you as you wait to have that more accurate test conducted which 'may' show the first test to be wrong.

Lastly, regardless of the test you decide to undertake, if a problem exists and a repair is deemed likely or necessary, the easiest way to undergo the repair is percutaneously (through the skin, in the same manner AND AT THE SAME TIME as the angiogram is performed).NOTE-not every problem can be repaired this way. Sometimes, the best option or only option is surgery.

I suggest the patient familiarize themself with an angiogram to help dispell the anxiety of the unkown or (perhaps) falsely known. Schedule to have it conducted in a hospital/medical center by a physician, both of which is able to conduct the "intervention" (repair) at the same time (if needed) as the diagnosis is made so that the situation can be identified and treated in one session.

Answer 3

Angiogram is the best study, but MRA is pretty good. Stress echo is indirect but good as is Nuclear med radiologic study.

Answer 4

An EKG or a ECG will also work. My son has a heart condition and an ECG detected it when nothing else did. Good luck!

Answer 5

MRI will show flow of blood through heart.