When stents are needed

When plaque builds up inside artery walls, the body’s natural response to injury can become its worst enemy. I attended a lecture this week to hear Dr. James Park, an interventional cardiologist with Cardiology and Interventional Vascular Associates in Dallas, explain how plaque build up in arteries can lead to a heart attack and the need for stents.

Perils of plaque:

Like me, many people attending the lecture assumed the only threat from plaque build-up was the gradual narrowing of arteries until, one day, the blockage was simply too great. Dr. Park explained that pieces of plaque inside artery walls breaks away, the body’s natural response to injury kicks in. Blood begins to clot over the site where plaque broke loose in an attempt to repair the injured area. The clot either further narrows the artery or completely blocks the flow of blood through the artery and causes a heart attack.

Dr. Park presented visuals to demonstrate procedures used to locate and repair blocked arteries:

• Angiogram: a procedure that inserts dye into arteries so an image can be taken to determine where the blockage has occurred.
• Angioplasty: a procedure that inserts a balloon into the area where to clot has formed to expand the artery so the clot can be broken into smaller pieces and removed by suction.
• Stent: A support inserted into the artery so it will remain open to allow blood to flow through.

The procedures in action:

Video produced by Nucleus Medical Art from The Baltimore Sun’s Web site demonstrates these procedures.

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