Journal of Invasive Cardiology

Incidence
Coronary angiography has been and currently remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease. It is an invasive procedure and is thus associated with various risks such as vascular and hemodynamic complications, contrast reaction, arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, stroke and death.¹
Cardiac catheterization-related stroke has an incidence of 0.03% to 0.3% for diagnostic procedures^2–4 and 0.3–0.4% for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).^5,6 In patients undergoing percutaneous interventions, stiff, large-bore guiding catheters are used. These design characteristics can be more traumatic to the aorta than diagnostic catheters, which are more flexible and have smaller lumens and tapered tips.