Heart Angioplasty

What is heart angioplasty?

Heart angioplasty treats chest pain and shortness of breath while helping to prevent heart attack. This minimally invasive procedure opens up your blocked arteries to restore normal blood flow to your heart.

Blockages develop when plaque builds up on the inside of your blood vessels. The plaque is made up of cholesterol, calcium, and other substances that circulate in your blood.

The buildup happens slowly, causing very few symptoms if any. But as plaque buildup becomes more severe, the narrowing of your blood vessels becomes more prominent.

If a blood clot forms, blocking an artery, you’re likely to have a heart attack. The Gulf Coast Cardiology Group PLLC experts use heart angioplasty to widen the affected blood vessels without invasive surgery.

When is heart angioplasty necessary?

Heart angioplasty is recommended to improve the symptoms of blocked arteries or to help manage some heart conditions. The procedure ultimately protects the health of your heart.

If you have a heart attack, an angioplasty can be used in an emergency situation to quickly open a blocked artery and stop further heart damage.

When you visit the team at Gulf Coast Cardiology Group PLLC, your cardiologist consults with you to determine if heart angioplasty is right for you.

What happens during a heart angioplasty?

Your cardiologist makes a small incision in an artery in your thigh or arm. A catheter with a tiny balloon on its end is inserted into blood vessels that travel to your heart. When the catheter reaches the narrowed place in your artery, your doctor inflates the balloon with a blast of air. As the balloon blows up, the plaque is pushed flat, allowing your artery to widen. 

Your doctor might also put a stent in your artery to hold it open.

Other angioplasty methods include:

Atherectomy

This kind of angioplasty uses a bladed device on the end of the catheter to cut away the plaque, allowing the flowing blood to clear it away.

Laser angioplasty

This kind uses laser energy to destroy the plaque on your blood vessel walls.

Your doctor sedates you for these procedures to ensure that you don’t feel any pain.

Call the friendly office today or book your appointment online to learn more about using angioplasty to treat your heart condition.