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Coronary Angioplasty or the Percutaneous Coronary Intervention is an invasive procedure that uses a balloon tipped catheter to dilate a stenotic area of a blood vessel. It can improve the blood flow to the heart.

This procedure is done to manage arteriosclerosis, a common disease of the arteries in which the lining of the small arteries are being thickened and atherosclerosis, also a disease of the arteries which affects the medium and large sized arteries caused by accumulation of fats, calcium, blood components, carbohydrates and fibrous tissues referred to as plaques.

It is also done to reduce the damage to the heart muscles caused by heart attack and improve symptoms of coronary artery disease such as angina and shortness of breath.

Most angioplasty is a success but this is not a permanent intervention. Plaques may reoccur months after the operation when doctor’s orders and other lifestyle modification interventions are not followed.

One famous artist who had undergone angioplasty for the third time (I think) is Ely Buendia, the former vocalist of the band Eraserheads who just recently suffered from a heart attack last August 30, 2008.

This is lifted from Medical Surgical Nursing 10th edition by Brunner and Suddarth

For more information on Coronary Angioplasty click here.

*photos are from here and here

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Did you know that?, Health, Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.