ARTERIOGRAPHY AND INTERVENTIONAL THERAPY FOR DISEASES OF THE HAND

Because the vessels of the hand are small and very responsive to stimu li, arteriography of the hand requires painstaking technique, temperat ure control, and sometimes vasodilator administration to produce suffi cient radiographic detail, Twenty-five patients underwent arteriograph y of the hand, which was performed from a transfemoral approach to eva luate pathologic changes and the possibility of interventional treatme nt, Production of high-quality images by means of attention to technic al factors particular to the hand permitted recognition of radiographi c detail essential to diagnosis, Twelve patients had a history of trau ma, and five patients had congenital lesions, In eight patients, ather osclerotic, vasospastic, or embolic arterio-occlusive disease was diag nosed, Interventional radiologic procedures such as thrombolysis, ther apeutic embolization, and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty are im portant adjuvant or primary management options, Angiography of vascula r hand lesions can yield high-quality diagnostic images when technical factors and physiologic variables are maximized, Differentiation betw een traumatic, congenital, and occlusive lesions is then possible.