Treating Coronary Artery Disease

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Treating Coronary Artery Disease

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Posted: June 1, 2008

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a condition in which plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. These arteries supply your heart muscle with oxygen-rich blood.

Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood. When plaque builds up in the arteries, the condition is called atherosclerosis.

CAD is the most common type of heart disease. It's the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women. Lifestyle changes, medicines, and/or medical procedures can effectively prevent or treat CAD in most people.

Lifestyle changes
Making lifestyle changes can often help prevent or treat CAD. For some people, these changes may be the only treatment needed:

Follow a heart healthy eating plan to prevent or reduce high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol and to maintain a healthy weight
Increase your physical activity. Check with your doctor first to find out how much and what kinds of activity are safe for you.
Lose weight, if you're overweight or obese.
Quit smoking, if you smoke. Avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.
Learn to cope with and reduce stress.

Medicines
You may need medicines to treat CAD if lifestyle changes aren't enough. Medicines used to treat CAD include anticoagulants, aspirin and other antiplatelet medicines, ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, nitroglycerin, glycoprotein IIb-IIIa, statins, and fish oil and other supplements high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Medical procedures
You may need a medical procedure to treat CAD. Both angioplasty and CABG (coronary artery bypass graft) are used as treatments.

Angioplasty opens blocked or narrowed coronary arteries. During angioplasty, a thin tube with a balloon or other device on the end is threaded through a blood vessel to the narrowed or blocked coronary artery. Once in place, the balloon is inflated to push the plaque outward against the wall of the artery. This widens the artery and restores the flow of blood.

Angioplasty can improve blood flow to your heart, relieve chest pain, and possibly prevent a heart attack. Sometimes a small mesh tube called a stent is placed in the artery to keep it open after the procedure.

In CABG, arteries or veins from other areas in your body are used to bypass (that is, go around) your narrowed coronary arteries. CABG can improve blood flow to your heart, relieve chest pain, and possibly prevent a heart attack.

Source: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

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