If your angiography reveals Coronary Artery Disease (narrowing or blockages in the arteries that restrict blood flow to the heart), your cardiologist may then perform a Non-Surgical Coronary Intervention to remove the obstruction from the arteries and replenish the blood flow to the heart.

These procedures includes:

1. Angioplasty and
2. Stent Implantation

Angioplasty opens blocked arteries and restarts normal blood flow to your heart muscle. It is not a major surgery. It is done by inflating a tiny balloon at the side of the block. In many patients a collapsed wire mesh tube called a stent is deployed at the site of narrowing. This acts as a scaffolding to help prevent it from renarrowing after the angioplasty.

During an angioplasty, also called percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), a guide wire is passed directly to the blocked vessel. A tiny, deflated balloon is passed through the catheter to the site of the obstruction. The balloon is inflated to compress the plague against the wall of artery, flattening it out so that blood can once again flow without obstruction. Since a balloon- tipped catheter is used, this is also referred to as a “balloon angioplasty “.

A coronary stent is an expandable mesh tube (about one – half inch long) that is placed in an artery to maintain the free flow of blood through the vessel following an angioplasty or atherectomy. The mesh-like tube is inserted (while collapsed) into the artery by mounting it onto a balloon – tipped catheter. Once it is positioned in the area where the plaque was compressed or removed, the balloon is inflated, which then explants it against the coronary artery walls.