All you should know about heart attack
What causes a heart attack? Your heart is supplied by three blood vessels (arteries). When these arteries get clogged with a blood clot, blood supply to a portion of the heart is suddenly cut off and the heart muscle starts dying with every passing second. The faster you are able to restore the blood supply, the greater the probability of saving the heart muscle from dying.
Angioplasty and stenting is the best treatment for heart attack worldwide. It involves passing a balloon and a stent through a tube into the blocked arteries. Earlier, only ballooning was done to open the blockages (plain balloon angioplasty), however, this procedure was associated with high rates of immediate re-occlusion. To overcome this, metallic scaffolds (stents) were implanted. However, these stents were associated with stent restenosis (blockages developing within the stent). And to solve this, what is known as DES (drug-eluting stents), were introduced, where the metallic stents were coated with drugs to prevent and decrease the chances of restenosis and development of clots, within these stents.
The food and drug administration of United States (US FDA) happens to be one of the world’s strictest authorities that sees the manufacturing and distribution of medical devices including stents. Fortunately for us, the historic decision of stent price capping in our country has made the most researched stents available at an affordable price. The decision to choose the stent depends on the physician. But it is always good to discuss about the kind of stent that would be used, and the patient should continue to take blood thinners and other important medicines as advised.