The arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle are called coronary arteries. In healthy hearts, blood flows freely to and from the heart and throughout the body. Sometimes these arteries are narrowed or blocked prohibiting proper blood flow. A Coronary Angiogram is a procedure that uses X-ray imaging to look at your heart’s blood vessels. For your Angiogram, you will be taken to our onsite Cardiac Catheterization Lab where a small catheter will be inserted into your heart through an artery or a vein. Dye is injected to allow the doctor to see the blood flow in your heart and coronary arteries, and X-rays pictures will be taken. The results of your Angiogram will assist your cardiologist in diagnosis and prevention of a number of concerns.

If a blockage is identified by cardiac catheterization, the doctor may open the blocked artery or vein with angioplasty or a stent. During angioplasty, a small balloon-tipped catheter is guided into the blocked blood vessel. The balloon is inflated to open the vessel. Once the blood vessel is opened, the balloon is deflated and removed. A stent may also be inserted through the catheter. A stent is a tiny expandable coil that is placed in a blocked blood vessel to prevent it from becoming blocked again. The stent holds open the blood vessel to improve circulation and allow greater blood flow.

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Heart Catheterization procedures can both diagnose and treat heart and blood vessel conditions. The most common type of heart caths, a Coronary Angiogram, helps your cardiologist diagnose an array of cardiovascular conditions. The results provide very clear images of the heart, making them an invaluable diagnostic tool. For this test, an ultrasound device is inserted down the patient’s throat. Your doctor may decide to use this test depending on what part of the heart needs to be viewed.

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Implanted cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are 99 percent effective in stopping life-threatening arrhythmias and are the most successful therapy to treat ventricular fibrillation, a major cause of sudden cardiac death. An ICD is implanted under the skin near the heart and constantly monitors a patient’s heart rhythm. If it detects a very fast, abnormal heart rhythm, it delivers energy to the heart muscle causing it to beat in a normal rhythm.

Pacemakers are miniature devices that can be implanted underneath the skin to monitor and provide control of a patient’s heart rhythm. Pacemakers are particularly helpful in patients who suffer from heart rhythms which are abnormally slow. Typically, the pacemaker is placed under the skin of the front wall of the heart below the collarbone. Monitoring of the pacemaker is usually done remotely at home with periodic visits to our office.

A small, expandable tube called a stent is often permanently inserted into the artery during angioplasty. A very then guide wire is inside the catheter. The guide wire is used to move a balloon and the stent into the coronary artery. A balloon is placed inside the stent and inflated, which opens the stent and pushes it into place against the artery wall. The balloon is then deflated and removed, leaving the stent in place. Because the stent is mesh-like, the cells lining the blood vessel grow through and around the stent to help secure it.

Stenting should:

• Open up the artery and press the plaque against the artery walls, thereby improving blood flow.
• Keep the artery open after the balloon is deflated and removed.
• Seal any tears in the artery wall.
• Prevent the artery wall from collapsing or closing off again (restenosis)
• Prevent small pieces of plaque from breaking off, which might cause a heart attack.

Stent placement is standard during most angioplasty procedures.

Your cardiologist may use a bare metal stent or a drug-eluting stent. Drug-eluting stents are coated with medicine that helps keep the artery open after angioplasty.