Importance of digital subtraction angiography in the imaging of locomotor tumors.

Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) performed with modern sophisticated equipment has been improved substantially in its ability to document also small vessels and pathologic vascularization patterns in tumorous conditions of the locomotor apparatus. Its domain is in imaging vascular patterns hidden by structural (mainly sclerotic) shadows in their vicinity. In 152 patients out of the total patient collective in the Bone Tumor Register in Prague having a bone tumor or a tumor-like condition, DSA proved to be a mild method of choice for the diagnostic imaging of vascular patterns of the lesions and/or combined diapeutic interventions and has not lost its raison d'être in the era of CT and MRI.