Incidence Rate and Risk Factors of Radial Artery Spasmduring Transradial Coronary Angiography

Radial artery spasm (RAS) is one of the most common complications of radial coronary angiogra-phy. Several demographic and clinical factors increase the risk of RAS in this procedure. We aimed to evaluatethe effect of various risk factors on the incidence and severity of RAS in radial coronary angiography.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 120 patients who were randomly selected from candidates referredto Shahid Modarres Educational Medical Center for coronary angiography by the radial method. After angiogra-phy, radial arteriography was performed to diagnose spasms. The association of some demographic and clinicalfactors with the incidence and severity of RAS was evaluated.

35 of the 120 patients (29.16%) developedRAS during angiography. Shorter height, shorter radius bone length, less radial artery diameter, longer proce-dure length, diabetes mellitus, more catheters used, and female sex were significantly associated with higherincidence. The predictive power of these factors for the occurrence of spasms was very good with AUC=0.88.Age, shorter height, higher body mass index, smaller radial artery diameter, longer procedure time, diabetesmellitus, failure of initial effort for puncture, number of catheters used, and female sex were significantly asso-ciated with the severity of spasms.

The incidence or severity of spasms during the procedure canbe reduced by examining the available risk factors for every patient before deciding to perform angiography.