WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HEART DISEASE...

Heart disease includes many diseases that affect your heart, but Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the most common and familiar one. CAD refers to the buildup of plaque in the heart’s arteries that could lead to a heart attack, heart failure, or death.

Every hour, about 14 Canadian adults age 20 and over with diagnosed heart disease die - cardiovascular disease is second only to cancer in the lives it takes.

A large percentage of the population is at risk of developing CAD or experiencing a heart attack, stroke, or other CAD-related crisis:

• Nine in 10 Canadians older than age 20 have at least one risk factor for CAD.

• Four in 10 Canadians have three or more risk factors for CAD.

• Women and men share most risk factors, but the significance of these risk factors are different in men and women.

• In addition, people of South Asian descent can have four times the risk of heart disease compared to the general population, and they can develop the disease up to a decade earlier.

HOW IS HEART DISEASE TREATED?

• Lifestyle changes

• Medicines

• Surgeries or procedures, one of the most common being cardiac catheterization

WHAT IS CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION?

In cardiac catheterization, a heart specialist puts a very small, flexible, hollow tube (called a catheter) into a blood vessel in the groin, arm, or neck. Then they thread it through the blood vessel into the aorta and into the heart.

Once the catheter is in place, tests to assess the heart muscle, heart valves and blood vessels in the heart are undertaken. Depending upon the findings, the cardiologist can then immediately deliver life saving treatments, the most common being angioplasty and stent placement.

WHAT IS ANGIOPLASTY AND STENT PLACEMENT?

For angioplasty, the catheter has a tiny balloon at its tip. Once the catheter is in place, the balloon is inflated at the narrowed area of the heart artery. This presses the plaque or blood clot against the sides of the artery, making more room for blood flow.

Coronary stent placements are now used in nearly all angioplasty procedures. A stent is a tiny, expandable metal mesh coil. It is put into the newly opened area of the artery to help keep the artery from narrowing or closing again – kind of like erecting scaffolding inside an artery.

These common, minimally invasive treatments for CAD take place in a catheterization lab.