Mike: My name is Mike from Michigan. My question is about heart disease, especially when it comes to coronary blockage, I'd like to know what the treatments are.
Christine Lawless: Thanks for asking that question, Mike. There are two ways that the blockage is present, either the artery can occlude or close off completely, and that's what's known as a Myocardial Infarction or a Heart Attack.
In this case you've got to get to the hospital immediately because there is no blood flow to that area of the heart and the physician needs to open up the blood vessel and restore blood flow. Once you get that, you save a lot of heart muscle.
The second way that someone can present is with a chronic problem in the blood vessel, something that occurs over a period of time. They can experience chest pain, or they may not have any symptoms whatsoever.
When they do have this type of problem, we can either treat it medically or with procedures that open up the arteries such as a stent or an angioplasty. The medications typically consist of things like Aspirin, what's called Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or blood pressure medications, and then Lipid-Lowering or Cholesterol-Lowering agents.
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