The Abdominal Syndrome and Angiography

Abstract

Pathologic changes of the visceral arteries can lead to clinically demonstrable disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and the parenchymatous organs. In the days before angiography, ante-mortem diagnosis of acute occlusions was mostly made during exploratory laparotomy, while chronic obliterative processes generally escaped notice until autopsy. This inability to arrive at a timely and exact diagnosis and institute effective therapy accounts for the lack of interest in abdominal blood flow disturbances that persisted for a long time.