Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), commonly known as coronary angioplasty or simply angioplasty, is a non-surgical procedure used to treat the stenotic (narrowed) coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary heart disease. These stenotic segments are due to the build up of the cholesterol-laden plaques that form due to atherosclerosis. PCI is usually performed by an interventional cardiologist, though was developed and originally performed by interventional radiologists.
During PCI, a cardiologist feeds a deflated balloon or other device on a catheter from the inguinal femoral artery or radial artery up through blood vessels until they reach the site of blockage in the heart. X-ray imaging is used to guide the catheter threading. At the blockage, the balloon is inflated to open the artery, allowing blood to flow. A stent is often placed at the site of blockage to permanently open the artery.
Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), which bypasses stenotic arteries by grafting vessels from elsewhere in the body, is an alternative treatment. Most studies have found that CABG is better than PCI for reducing death and myocardial infarction. PCI has proven to be as effective and less costly than CABG in patients with medically refractory myocardial ischemia.
However,the coronary revascularization by coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is associated with an increased risk of stroke.
Read more about Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Medical Uses, Adverse Events, Controversy, Procedures, History
Famous quotes containing the words coronary and/or intervention:
“Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary bypass.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“I was curious, I was avid to know only what I found more real than myself, that which allowed me to glimpse the thoughts of a great genius, or the force or grace of nature left to its own devices, without the intervention of man.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)