Medical breakthroughs sometimes begin with a simple curious mind who asks, “What if…” and then proceeds to do something absurd that makes them go down into history books or change the way people live their lives.
Before going into the detail about how Angiography was discovered, let us know about Angiography first. You may have heard of Angiography before. Even if you have not, do not worry. Sit back, have a cup of coffee/tea and relax while you read this article.
Angiography is an imaging test that uses X-rays and a special Dye to view your body's blood vessels.
The contrast dye typically used during the angiogram procedure contains Iodine (more about that later). The dye is injected into a small tube or catheter into an artery in your groin or (sometimes) your arm. The small tube is inserted after an injection of local anaesthetic around the artery. The X-rays provided by an angiography are called angiograms. This test is used to study narrow, blocked, enlarged, or malformed arteries or veins in many parts of your body, including your brain, heart, abdomen, and legs. Angiography is done in a hospital X-ray or radiology department. It usually takes between 30 minutes and 2 hours, and you can usually go home the same day.
Moreover, Angiography is often considered the same as Angioplasty. These terms are not to be used interchangeably. Angiography and angioplasty are two different medical procedures that are related to the blood vessels. Angiography is used to investigate or examine your blood vessels for a potential heart condition. On the other hand, Modern angioplasty uses a special balloon and a metal mesh tube (stent) to open up a narrowed or blocked blood vessels (normally known as coronary arteries) that supply blood to the heart. In the long term, this should improve blood flow to the heart muscle and result in less or no angina.
Since the dawn of the era of X-rays (Discovered by a physicist Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895), cardiac radiology has become a target of this new technique. Numerous early pioneers, rapidly accumulated extensive experience with fluoroscopy (X-ray movie in which a continuous ray of X-Ray is passed through the body) and radiography and publications on cardiac diseases till 1902.
The next step in cardiac diagnosis was achieved by Werner Forssmann in 1929, with the first attempt at cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography. 
Werner Forssmann, a 25-year-old medical from Germany studying in University of Berlin, had an absurd idea in his mind. He hypothesized that a catheter could be inserted directly into the heart, for such applications as directly delivering drugs, injecting radiopaque dyes, or measuring blood pressure. He actually had thought, “Can I thread a flexible tube all the way to my heart through a vein, and then photograph it for the rest of the guys to see down at the beer hall?” The fear at the time was that such an intrusion into the heart would be fatal. To prove his point, he decided to try the experiment on himself. This was going to be huge risk.
Moreover, English physician William Harvey had already proven in the 1600s that the blood circulates through the body and that the heart is the centre of circulation. In theory, Forssmann had known it should be possible to reach the heart & measure the activity of the human heart by determining pressures inside the heart’s chambers. If pressures were good, the heart was functioning normally; if low or erratic, the physician could diagnose faulty cardiac function.Â
Without thinking much, Forssmann cut an incision into the basilic vein in his upper arm.
The bold and brave student then threaded a urethral catheter—a transparent tube used to help patients who cannot urinate—into his vein. At this point, it was clear that he was not going to stop. He walked down a flight of stairs with the tube in his arm and entered the radiology department of University of Berlin. He then asked the professionals from the department to assist him. At first, all the people refused. However, he managed to convince some people to
assist him. He then proceeded to sit down on a table, and continued threading the tube toward his heart, using a mirror to watch his progress on a primitive X-ray device known as a fluoroscope. When he threaded the tube all the way into his heart’s right atrium, Forssmann X-rayed the event for posterity. At that moment, the diagnostic tool known as angiography was invented.
A year later, Forssmann decided to repeat his trick. There was a slight change in the techniques this time. He injected an iodine compound through the hollow catheter and into the right atrium of his own heart for the world to see. Now, not only the catheter but the area of the heart injected with iodine could be seen with an X-ray. Because of Forssmann, the diagnostic tool known as cardiac angiography was discovered. He then went on to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1956 (shared with Andre Frederic Cournand and Dickinson W. Richards) for developing a procedure that allowed cardiac catheterization.
It helped saved millions of lives and revolutionize the field of cardiology, radiology and medicine.
