Heart Artery Disease

• Introduction
• Chest pain
  • Angina
  • Other chest pain
• Heart attack (myocardial infarction)
  • Introduction
• Assessment of the heart arteries
  • Treadmill stress test
  • Stress echocardiogram
  • Stress nuclear studies
  • Angiogram- invasive
  • Angiogram- CT
• Treatment of heart artery disease
  • Medication
  • Stent treatment
  • Heart bypass surgery

Treatment of Heart Artery Disease
Stent Treatment

Diseased parts of the heart artery can be stretched by a balloon and a metal coil (stent) introduced to keep the vessel widely open.

Not all diseased arteries can be treated this way. Stent treatment is very effective when medication does not control angina.

After a minor heart attack, stent treatment has been shown to reduce the chance of further heart attacks and further admissions to hospital.

Stent treatment has not been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack in other situations. In other words, if medication controls angina well then stent treatment has not been shown to reduce the risk of heart attack. Nevertheless, many prefer to have strent treatment to avoid taking medication for angina.