Winning the Battle to Keep Heart Vessels Open (NAPSA)—Clogged heart ves- sels are one of nature’s greatest challenges and the leading cause of heart attacks. Read about the remarkable advances that have revolutionized the treatment of coronary arteries—the vessels so important to keeping you alive. 1960s: Surgery Rules The surgical procedure called coronary artery bypass grafting becomes the treatment of choice for severe coronary artery blockages. The surgeon uses a piece of vessel, usually from the leg, to build a detour or “bypass” around the area of blockage. This operation, while effective, is hard on the patient. Recovery is long and the risks are substantial. 1970s: Balloons Take Center Stage Physicians learn a gentler way to treat large numbers of heart patients. In a procedurecalled balloon angioplasty, a thin plastic tube (catheter) with a small balloon on its tip is inserted into a vessel in the thigh. Using x-ray to guide the path, the doctor carefully threads Scientists continue to develop new methodsfor the treatment of coronaryarteries. vessel braced open. Stenting is a dramatic improvement over bal- loon angioplasty by itself, but scar tissue still presents a problem. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of patients continue to develop significant reblockages, and more than one-third of those need to be retreated. 2003: Finally, a One-Time Treatmentis Possible the catheter through the large vessels in the abdomen and up to the heart. Once the catheter reaches the blocked coronary artery, the In 2008, the treatment of coronary artery disease takes a giant loon angioplasty are good, many vessel open and gradually releases process is called restenosis and it wall. Sirolimus tends to reduce the cells in the vessel lining from balloon is inflated to clear the blockage. While the results of bal- vessels respond by producing scar tissue that reblocks the artery. This occurs in about 50 percent of balloon angioplasty-treated vessels. 1990s: Stents Improve Results To reduce the problem of reblockage, doctors begin implanting tiny metal scaffolding devices called stents. They use balloon angioplasty to open the blockage andthen insert a stent to keep the step forward with the new drugdevice combination called the CYPHER”Sirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent. The stent props the the drug sirolimus into the vessel forming scar tissue. The vessel is morelikely to stay open, reducing the potential rate of reblockage and retreatment to five percent. At last, doctors can offer patients a first-time treatment for blocked coronaryarteries. For more information, visit www.cypherusa.com.
