How is CAD treated?
Each year, many patients with CAD will need treatment to increase the flow of blood to the heart. Interventional Cardiology has emerged over the past decade as an alternative to traditional cardiac surgery. Through the use of minimally invasive catheter-based techniques like balloon angioplasty and stent placement in combination with innovative drug therapies, many conditions can now be treated without the need for surgical intervention (most commonly Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, or CABG) and lengthy hospital stays.
Drug Therapy
Drugs work to dilate (expand) the coronary arteries, enabling more oxygen to be delivered via the blood to the surrounding heart tissue.
Drug therapies are also used to enhance the patient’s recovery while minimizing the chance of the condition’s recurrence due to formation of scar tissue (restenosis).
Balloon Angioplasty
Balloon angioplasty (also know as PT(C)A: Percutaneous Transluminal (Coronary) Angioplasty), is a minimally invasive, non-surgical medical procedure in which a balloon is used to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels. A catheter with a deflated balloon on its tip (balloon catheter) is passed into the narrowed artery segment, the balloon is then inflated to break up plaque lining the walls of the artery, opening up the artery for blood flow. The balloon is then deflated and the catheter is removed.
Stent placement
A stent is a small expandable mesh tube, delivered on a balloon catheter and implanted in the artery after balloon angioplasty, to help keep an area of blockage within an artery open. After the plaque is compressed against the arterial wall, the stent is fully expanded into position, thereby acting as a miniature scaffolding for the artery. The balloon is then deflated and removed and the stent is left behind in the patient’s blood vessel.
Stents can also be coated with drugs to help prevent recurrence of blockage due to formation of scar tissue. This phenomenon is also known as restenosis: a renarrowing of an artery after angioplasty, stent placement, or bypass surgery. Restenosis occurs when blockages return a few weeks or months after the intervention.
According to internal data, over 2.5 million angioplasty procedures will be performed worldwide in 2007 utilizing more than 3.5 million stents.
Atherectomy
Artherectomy is a procedure involving a catheter with a rotating tip (rotational artherectomy) or cutting component (directional artherectomy) that either breaks up calcified plaque into very small particles that wash away in the bloodstream or are removed by the device itself.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy (also known as brachytherapy), is a procedure in which radiation is delivered within an artery to prevent its reclosing (restenosis). This therapy is used in combination with balloon angioplasty or stent placement.
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG)
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, also known as Bypass Surgery, involves an open-heart surgical procedure that reroutes (bypasses) blood around clogged coronary arteries and improves the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart muscle.
