|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
How Is Heart Disease Treated? Coronary heart disease or simply heart disease is the number one killer affecting more than 13 million Americans in the United States. It is the results of plaque buildup in the coronary arteries that blocks the blood flow and raises the risk of heart attack and stroke. When a person has angina or chest pain, he or she might have a heart disease. Angina is usually felt in the chest or sometimes in the left shoulder, arms, neck, back, or jaw. While angina is the most common symptoms, people with heart disease might also have other symptoms including shortness of breath, a faster heartbeat, palpitations, weakness or dizziness, nausea and sweating. Once people are diagnosed with heart disease, their doctors would present them with several treatment options. If the blockage in the heart arteries were not serious, perhaps making lifestyle changes and taking medications would help. However, if the blockages in the heart arteries were very extensive, most likely the doctors will advise them to undergo an open-heart bypass surgery, or a coronary angioplasty or stenting. During open-heart bypass operation, the heart will be connected to a heart-lung machine for a while that obviously carries considerable risks. On the other hand, a coronary angioplasty or stenting is an invasive procedure where a balloon and a stent are used to open up the narrowing arteries. A stent is a metal scaffolding device that is inserted to prop open a blocked artery in the heart, through a very small hole, either in the patient's wrist or upper thigh, to restore blood flow to the heart muscle.
For a person with severe diffuse narrowing of heart arteries who choose to have angioplasty procedures instead of bypass surgery, a lot of stents would be required. It is known as full metal jacket and it does potentially create another problem in the future. If the arteries in the patient start to narrow again, he or she will not be eligible for bypass surgery because of the initial full metal jacket that was implanted in the heart arteries. The only option then is to lay another layer of metal stents over the initial full metal jacket. This would mean that the patient would have double layers of metal stents in his arteries. A third option is, however, available. Thanks to the recent advancement of technology of heart stents. It is known as bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) system that is delivered into the artery to treat the narrowed portion in a way that is similar to how a stent works. The BVS is made up of a material that gradually dissolves into elements already found in the body, allowing the blood vessel to function naturally again. With this treatment, one will not have a permanent stent in the artery. Patients treated with this way might be able to undergo another similar procedure or even an open-heart bypass in the future, if necessary. In 1988, Thoraxcenter in Rotterdam and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina developed biodegradable scaffold and that was how BVS began. The benefits of BVS include the return of the flexibility, conform- ability, and vasomotricity of the vessels. Meanwhile, it is believed that patients with BVS appear to have less chest pain than those implanted with permanent stents, though robust data are still needed to support such claim. The traditional risk factors for heart disease include high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, family history, smoking, obesity, being post-menopausal for women and being older than 45 for men. Heart disease can start early in childhood, and there is evidence that plaques that will stay for life are formed in most people. But heart disease can be prevented! Early preventive measures could have greater lifetime benefits. In order to reduce the risk factors, people should live a healthy lifestyle that incorporates good nutrition diet with low-fat and low-sugar, weight management, and regular physical activity.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d........ |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
