ISCHEMIA-EXTEND (Extended Follow-up)

Narrowed blood vessels can be opened without surgery using stents or can be bypassed with surgery. To determine which is the best approach for you the doctor needs to look at your blood vessels to see where the narrowings are and how much narrowing there is. This is done by a procedure known as a cardiac catheterization.

"Artery narrowing is bypassed during surgery with a healthy artery or vein from another part of the body. This is known as coronary artery bypass grafting, or CABG (said, cabbage). The surgery creates new routes around narrowed and blocked heart arteries. This allows more blood flow to the heart."

Percutaneous coronary intervention may be done as part of the cardiac catheterization procedure. With this procedure a small, hollow, mesh tube (stent) is inserted into the narrowed part of the artery. The stent pushes the plaque against the artery wall, and opens the vessel to allow better blood flow.

diet, physical activity, smoking cessation

antiplatelet, statin, other lipid lowering, antihypertensive, and anti-ischemic medical therapies