Radiation Exposure with the Radial Approach for Diagnostic Coronary Angiography in a Centre Previously Performing Purely the Femoral Approach

Introduction Use of the radial approach for coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is known to improve many patient outcome measures. However, there is some concern that it may be associated with increased patient radiation exposure. This study explores radiation exposure with the radial approach compared with the femoral approach in a centre previously performing purely femoral approach. Patients and Methods Data was collected retrospectively for all patients undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography over a six month period. PCIs and procedures with inherent technical difficulty or use of additional techniques (graft studies, optical coherence tomography, fractional flow reserve) were excluded. Dose area product (DAP) and fluoroscopy time (FT) were analysed for all remaining procedures (n=389), comparing radial (n=109) and femoral (n=280) approaches. Results The overall mean FT for transradial cases (7.45 mins) was significantly higher than for transfemoral cases (4.59 mins; p