What is a patent artery?

MRA stands for Magnetic Resonance Angiogram. MRA is a new technique to look and see whether arteries are open, narrowed or closed. It avoids the need to give a patient intravenous contrast as in a standard angiogram, since there are side effects to contrast. Patent simply means “open”.

I’m a little puzzled by the wording. But patent is a good thing – it means that the artery is open and allows blood flow.

Patent as stated before means open ie blood is getting through to the heart (im assuming its the heart we’re talking about as one of your tags is cardiology).

If the exact wording they used was “possibly patent” it might mean that they did not get enough images to tell if the artery was blocked or not. As everything is moving during the image capture you some times don’t get the perfect views you would hope for.

you should go and discuss this with your cardiologist

It might not be anything to worry about and probably isn’t but you really need to talk to them about it.

For everybody else if you are having test xrays or any other interaction with a doctor/nurse what ever and they say something you dont understand or are not clear about ask them to explain. They wont mind. You are afterall paying them and probably paying them well.

Also bring a family member or friend as the listener and note taker. Often, as a patient, one gets stuck, shocked, scared, whatever and doesn’t hear half of what Doc. is saying.

I also type a list of questions -starting w. the most important and hand to the Doc. after he walks into the room..No possibility of misunderstanding then. However, make sure questions are short, clear and spelled correctly.

@Gail. Good point. Even after long visits with patients, I often feel that there is a gap in understanding when discussing complicated issues, mainly due to the fact that people have a tendency to lose focus very quickly when discussing deeply serious and life threatening issues. Having a list of prioritized questions is great. Also, at the end of the visit, it doesn’t hurt to summarize the high points, i.e. “As I understand it, I have an ulcer which is going to require antibiotics…”