angio-plasty?

Question

My dad is having angio-plasty tomorrow. He had a stress test and he did well. He has been exercising for a long time and lost alot of weight. When he did his cat scan or MRI, not sure exactly what the procedure was but it look like there were shaded areas. He feels fine. The doctor said that there may be no blockages there at all, he can choose to do the angioplasti or wait, what do you think? Another doctor encouraged him to do it, he is not sure what to do.

Answer 1

He is probably have an angiogram tomorrow. They will not do angioplasty unless it is necessary. He probably had a nuc. test that showed the shades regions. Why was he getting the test in the first place. If he went to the doc w/ problems then yes, he needs to have the angiogram. That is simply the study of his vessels with dye. An angioplasty is the opening of the blockages with balloons and or stent.

Answer 2

Its pretty late in the game to be changing the plan, but an angiogram is not a completely benign procedure. The procedure needs to be done in context of risk verses benefit. Your father from what you say is completely free of symptoms and did well on a stress study that was designed to show coronary disease. I am failing to see the benefit. If there was a blockage and angioplasty was performed with a stent deployed, there is some concern in the literature that drug-eluding stents may be implicated in late presentation clotting - which would precipitate a heart attack.

Every medical procedure has risk. It would be very reasonable to wait until there was some more objective evidence to prompt investigation by angiogram. Another type of stress study could be performed to collaborate the first - if nuclear, then do a stress echocardiogram.

If your father did well on the stress study, why did they perform the CT angiogram in the first place?

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Answer 3

They can check with a heart cath. Seems they would do that before they balloon him.