Angioplasty

This page contains recent news articles, when available, and an overview of Angioplasty but does not offer medical advice. You should contact your physician with regard to any health issues or concerns.

Background information on Angioplasty

Angioplasty is the mechanical dilation of an artery that has been obstructed, generally due to atheroma (the lesion of atherosclerosis).

Coronary angioplasty

One way to unblock (open up the lumen) of a coronary artery (or other blood vessel) is angioplasty, or Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA). A wire is passed through the diseased coronary artery, to beyond the area of coronary artery that is being worked upon. Over this wire, a balloon catheter is passed into the segment that is to be opened up. The end of the catheter contains a small folded balloon. When the balloon is hydraulically inflated, it compresses the atheromatous plaque and streches the artery wall to expand. At the same time, if an expandable wire mesh tube (stent) was on the balloon, then the stent will be implanted (left behind) to support the new stretched open position of the artery from the inside.

Angioplasty and stenting is performed through a thin flexible catheter during Cardiac Catheterization, often making heart surgery unnecessary. While coronary angioplasty has consistently been shown to reduce symptoms due to coronary artery disease and to reduce cardiac ischemia, it has not been shown in large trials to reduce mortality due to coronary artery disease.

Traditional ("bare metal") coronary stents provide a mechanical framework that holds the artery wall open, preventing stenosis, or narrowing, of arteries feeding critical structures like the myocardium. Traditional stenting is superior to angioplasty alone in keeping arteries open.

Newer stents (called drug-eluting stents) are coated with drugs that prevent re-stenosis of the artery. Two drugs, sirolimus and paclitaxel, have been demonstrated effective and safe in this application by stent device manufacturers and are being used in the US. This therapy is increasingly being used in Europe as well (e.g. in Switzerland about 80% of the stents used are coated with drugs).

Risks of angioplasty include myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmia, bleeding and death. These events, fortunately, are uncommon, and the procedure is widely practiced. Coronary angioplasty is usually performed by an interventional cardiologist, a medical doctor with special training in the treatment of the heart using invasive catheter-based procedures.

Angioplasty is often referred to as Dottering, after Dr C.T. Dotter, who, together with Dr M.P. Judkins, first described angioplasty (without the balloon) in 1964 (Circulation 1964;30:654-70).

Peripheral angioplasty

Peripheral angioplasty refers to the use of similar techniques in opening blood vessels other than the coronary arteries. It is often called percutaneous transluminal angioplasty or PTA for short. PTA is most commonly done to treat narrowings in the leg arteries, especially the common iliac, external iliac, superficial femoral and popliteal arteries. PTA can also be done to treat narrowings in veins.

Renal artery angioplasty

Atherosclerotic obstruction of the renal artery can be treated with angioplasty of the renal artery (percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty, PTRA). Renal artery stenosis can lead to hypertension and loss of renal function.

Carotid angioplasty

Generally, carotid artery stenosis is still not treated with angioplasty and stenting in most hospitals, due to the increased risk of embolic stroke with the procedure. Furthermore, it is not yet FDA approved. However, starting in the early 1990s with new anti-embolic devices designed to reduce or trap atheroma and clot debris, angioplasty and stenting is increasingly being used to also treat carotid stenosis, with success rates similar to carotid endarterectomy surgery. Simple angioplasty without stenting is falling out of favor in this vascular bed. A large trial comparing endarterectomy and stenting found stenting equally efficacious (Yadav et al 2004).

From Wikipedia

News Articles on Angioplasty

Angiotech announces commercial launch of Cook Medical's Zilver(R ...  -  05 Apr 2008
FOXBusinessIn many cases, PAD patients who have been treated with balloon angioplasty and stenting experience restenosis, or renarrowing of the arteries, over time and

Paclitaxel-coated balloon cuts late lumen loss after PCI for in ...  -  05 Apr 2008
TheHeart.Org,Chicago, IL - It's not your father's angioplasty balloon, it's a delivery system for antiproliferative drugs that may have some advantages over drug-eluting

Signs and symptoms of a heart attack  -  05 Apr 2008
Saugus Advertiser,A: The earlier you seek medical attention, the more likely it is that you can receive lifesaving treatments such as clot busting drugs, angioplasty,

County EMS lifesavers honored  -  05 Apr 2008
Coshocton Tribune,He underwent cardiac catherization where angioplasty was performed and one stent was placed to keep the artery open. Milton went home the last week of

Are we letting our opinions block out empiricism?  -  05 Apr 2008
Myrtle Beach Sun News,I personally do not know enough to have an opinion about whether stents are a better option than angioplasty for clogged arteries. Back to global warming.

State Report Ranks LIJ as New York's Best Hospital for Angioplasty ...  -  Apr 4, 2008
PR Newswire (press release),Angioplasty is a procedure used to clear blocked heart arteries and increase blood flow. The latest three-year report (encompassing data from 2003-05),

State releases death rates for angioplasty  -  Apr 4, 2008
The Post-Standard - Syracuse.com,The report shows 20 of 694 patients undergoing angioplasty at University died within 30 days of the operation. The report calculated the hospital's

State Health Department Releases Report On Angioplasty Outcomes  -  Apr 3, 2008
Medical News Today (press release),Commonly referred to as "angioplasty" or "coronary stenting," PCI is a procedure used to clear blocked coronary arteries.

Angioplasty should be used more, doctors say  -  Mar 31, 2008
Los Angeles Times,By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Improvements in angioplasty in the last few years have made the procedure for unblocking coronary

Angioplasty Proves Reasonable Alternative to Bypass Surgery  -  Mar 31, 2008
Washington Post,A typical form of PCI -- angioplasty -- involves inserting a catheter into the artery to widen the vessel, and then hold it open with a stent.

Anticoagulant Drugs Had Similar Outcomes After Angioplasty  -  Mar 30, 2008
U.S. News & World Report,SUNDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- In heart attack patients who had angioplasty, the anticoagulant drugs abciximab and tirofiban produced similar outcomes

Orlando-area hospitals compete for heart patients  -  Apr 4, 2008
Orlando Sentinel,For the most dangerous type of heart attack, the goal is to clear the blockage in a procedure called angioplasty within 90 minutes of arrival.

Comparison Of Anticoagulants For Angioplasty Show Similar Outcomes  -  Mar 30, 2008
Science Daily (press release)30, 2008) â€” In a comparison of anticoagulants and stents for use with angioplasty following a heart attack, the anticoagulants abciximab and tirofiban had

Angiomax Demonstrated Improved Outcomes in Acute Heart Attack ...  -  Mar 29, 2008
WELT ONLINE,Reduced bleeding has been associated with greater long-term survival in other studies in angioplasty patients1,2. "These data show that even with individual

Statins may protect kidneys from angioplasty dyes  -  Apr 1, 2008
Pittsburgh Post Gazette,By Joe Fahy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Statin drugs used to lower cholesterol may also protect the kidneys from dyes used during angioplasty procedures,

In major shift, angioplasty on decline  -  Mar 26, 2008
USA TodayThe approach the doctors used is derived from one of the most common procedures in medicine, coronary angioplasty, which is performed 650000 to 1 million

State OKs angioplasties at Kent Hospital  -  Apr 3, 2008
Providence Business News,The decision â€“ a departure from the stateâ€™s previous requirement that angioplasty programs be backed up by open-heart surgery capabilities â€“ could have

Angioplasty Safe Sans Surgical Backup  -  Mar 31, 2008
WebMDBy Charlene Laino March 31, 2008 (Chicago) -- Angioplasty procedures to open clogged heart arteries can be performed safely and successfully at medical

Health Ministry: 'Complacence, negligence' cause patient's death  -  Apr 3, 2008
Ha'aretz,By Ran Reznick, Haaretz Correspondent A patient who suffered massive bleeding during an angioplasty in Soroka Medical Center died 16 hours afterward due to

Angioplasty and bypass surgery relatively equal in treatment and ...  -  Mar 31, 2008
Pravda,A new study claims that angioplasty is a considerable substitution to bypass surgery. Coronary artery bypass surgery, also coronary artery bypass graft

Medicines Company Sets Itself Apart  -  Apr 2, 2008
Motley FoolAngiomax, used as an anticoagulation therapy in many angioplasty surgeries, won FDA approval in 2000. But the data that Medicines released on Saturday was

Surgery best option to prevent repeat heart attacks  -  Apr 2, 2008
Canada.com,Canadians who suffer a heart attack have a greater chance of not having repeat attacks if they undergo angioplasty surgery within six hours of receiving

Stenting Provides No Advantage Over Medical Treatment for Patients ...  -  Apr 3, 2008
DG News...[Presentation title: The Impact of Renal Artery Revascularisation in Atherosclerotic Renovascular Disease: The Angioplasty and Stenting for Renal Artery

Drug-Releasing Stent Better Than Uncoated Stent For Angioplasty  -  Mar 30, 2008
Medical News Today,A study published early online in the journal JAMA concludes that patients who received angioplasty after a heart attack and who received stents that

The Elderly Can Be Candidates for Angioplasty, Stenting  -  Mar 18, 2008
Washington Post,In the older group, 20 had diagnostic arteriography, an X-ray examination of blood vessels; 20 had angioplasty to open a blocked artery; and 31 had stents

USA Today Examines Angioplasty Trends  -  Mar 28, 2008
Kaiser network.org,The "meteoric rise" of angioplasty during the past three decades "has ended," according to several analyses, USA Today reports. Angioplasty, which involves

The race against time: Emergency angioplasty now available at FMH  -  Mar 27, 2008
Frederick News Post (subscription),The national average door-to-stent time is more than three hours in communities without a primary angioplasty program, said FMH cardiologist Dr. John

Tirofiban Is as Effective as Abciximab for Lowering ST-Segment ...  -  Apr 2, 2008
DG News..."The results of this important trial show that in STEMI patients undergoing primary angioplasty, treatment with tirofiban results in similar clinical

Study Lends Support to Small,  -  Mar 29, 2008
Wall Street JournalBy JON KAMP CHICAGO -- A large study released Saturday showed that artery-clearing angioplasty procedures can be safely performed in well-run and skilled

Media Advisory - New angioplasty suite in Thunder Bay  -  Mar 27, 2008
Canada NewsWire (press release),George Smitherman, Deputy Premier and Health and Long-Term Care Minister, will tour the new angioplasty suite at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences

Amid Worries, Angioplasty Declines  -  Mar 27, 2008
Wall Street Journal Blogs,A wave of studies suggesting doctors may have been overzealous in their use of angioplasty and stents looks to be having an impact: The number of

Patients With Renal Artery Stenosis Did Equally Well With Medical ...  -  Apr 2, 2008
Medical News Today (press release),Perhaps most important, uncontrolled high blood pressure often prompts physicians to suspect renal artery stenosis - and to treat it with angioplasty and

Small Hospitals Push to Do Heart Work  -  Mar 29, 2008
The Associated PressA popular treatment is angioplasty. Doctors push a tiny balloon into an artery, inflate it to flatten the clog, and often place a stent to prop the vessel

Health Highlights: March 29, 2008  -  Mar 29, 2008
Washington Post,Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) -- more commonly known as balloon angioplasty -- doesn't need to be performed only in hospitals with coronary

A Year Later, Courage Study Still Big Issue For Stent Market  -  Mar 27, 2008
CNNMoney.comThe study had a major impact, reducing angioplasty procedures in the US last year by at least 10%, and contributing to a $1 billion slide in US sales of

Pune doctor develops innovative angioplasty technique  -  Mar 20, 2008
Thaindian.com,Pune, March 20 (IANS) Rahul Patil, a cardiology consultant at a private hospital in Pune, has developed a new procedure to perform angioplasty.

Wrist Angioplasty Associated with 50% Less Blood Transfusions and ...  -  Mar 19, 2008
Angioplasty.Org,Radial access for angioplasty was developed in the 1990's as an alternative "on-ramp" to the body's arterial highway, and it allowed cardiologists to thread

In Acute Coronary Syndromes Clopidogrel Reloading Worthwhile  -  Apr 2, 2008
Medical News Today (press release),Dr. Di Sciascio presented the results of the "Antiplatelet Therapy for Reduction of Myocardial Damage During Angioplasty-RELOAD" (ARMYDA-RELOAD) study on

Radial Angioplasty Course Set for St. Vincent's Hospital in New York  -  Mar 14, 2008
Angioplasty.Org,The transradial angioplasty technique, where catheters are introduced through the wrist artery, is used widely in Europe, India and Japan, but has not been

Iso-osmolar X-ray dye falters in PCI study  -  Apr 1, 2008
EurekAlert (press release),Dr. Wessely will present the results of the "The Contrast Media and Nephrotoxicity Following Coronary Revascularization by AngioplastyÂ§ (CONTRAST) study on

Drug Therapy Boosting Heart-Attack Survival Rates  -  Mar 24, 2008
U.S. News & World Report,The study doesn't mean that surgical interventions such as artery-opening angioplasty have no place in the long-term treatment of heart attack survivors,

Demand disappointing for Cape's open-heart surgery program  -  Mar 29, 2008
Cape Cod Times,Health officials say the popularity of a procedure called angioplasty has driven down the number of patients receiving open-heart and other cardiac

State fines Scripps over patient hit by doctor  -  Mar 21, 2008
San Diego Union Tribune,During the angioplasty in August, the state report said, Buchbinder made â€œchopping like blows to the patient's abdomen,â€? tried to hit the man's leg â€œwith a

Comments on this Story  -  Mar 30, 2008
Arizona Daily Star,It's not always known if an angioplasty is even necessary, and if performed on the wrong patient, the procedure itself could kill or cause them serious side

Stent Blood Clots have recurrence tendency  -  Mar 30, 2008
The Money Times,Heart stents are tiny wire mesh tubes metal devices that inserted into the coronary arteries after the angioplasty treatment.

Medtronic, Boston Sci Stents Similar In Diabetes -Study  -  Mar 30, 2008
CNNMoney.comData on another set of patients, meantime, showed that Endeavor patients whose heart arteries were imaged with an angiogram after angioplasty were more

A 15-minute dilemma  -  Mar 8, 2008
Palm Beach Post,Today, 13 Florida hospitals without open-heart surgery units now provide emergency angioplasty to heart attack patients - but Good Samaritan is not one of

Health Notes  -  Apr 4, 2008
Baltimore Sun,...an intra-aortic balloon pump to augment blood flow to the heart for those who have had heart attacks or are having procedures such as angioplasty;

Market Report -- In Play (MDCO)  -  Mar 30, 2008
MSN Money...or renal function of heart attack patients in the HORIZONS-AMI trial compared to a more complex treatment regimen 30 days following primary angioplasty.

Final fundraising push needed for heart suite  -  Mar 24, 2008
Norfolk Eastern Daily Press,A long-awaited new catheter laboratory will mean the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital can boast a full angioplasty service to unblock clogged

Search the web for more resources on Angioplasty

Web health.mongabay.com

Disclaimer:

Contact a physician with regard to health concerns. Email requests for further health information will be discarded.

The materials contained on this Web site are for informational purposes only and do not constitute health or medical advice. Use of information on this site does not create or constitute any kind of agreement or contract between you and the owners or users of this site, the owners of the servers upon which it is housed, or anyone else who is in any way connected with this site.

Many links on health.mongabay.com lead to other sites. health.mongabay.com does not sponsor, endorse or otherwise approve of the materials appearing in such sites. Nor is health.mongabay.com responsible for dead or misdirected links.