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Advanced Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease is a condition in which the arteries, which supply blood, oxygen and nutrients to the body, begin to harden or become filled with plaque. This disease can slowly advance into a life-threatening condition that can cause heart attack and ultimately death.

  1. How Is Coronary Artery Disease Diagnosed?

    • Because coronary artery disease develops slowly over time, a patient may not discover he has coronary artery disease until a heart attack occurs. However, the condition can be diagnosed prior to a coronary event through a variety of methods, such as through a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test, which gives a physician a view into the coronary arteries, and allows the physician to pinpoint areas of blockage.

    Symptoms

    • For advanced coronary artery disease, most patients experience symptoms because the arteries have become so narrow that the blood cannot easily reach the heart. Not only does this require the heart to pump harder, it can permanently damage or kill heart muscle that has not received regular oxygen. Before a heart attack occurs, advanced coronary artery disease symptoms include chest pain (also known as angina) that occurs with exercise or stress, or shortness of breath, in which a patient experiences extreme difficulty breathing, even while seated.

    Risk Factors

    • Many conditions are known as contributing factors of advanced coronary artery disease, such as high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol and triglycerides), obesity and diabetes. All of these factors can contribute to the artery narrowing associated with advanced coronary artery disease. For these patients, it is especially vital to undergo yearly testing or imaging by a physician to ensure coronary artery disease has not become too advanced.

    Causes

    • Some elements of plaque and artery-narrowing are inevitable, as is a side effect of advancing age. However, for those with advanced coronary artery disease, these symptoms can be the signal of additional causes, particularly smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or experiencing prior radiation therapy to the chest as a cancer treatment.

    At-Home Treatments

    • Because many coronary artery disease symptoms are associated with lifestyle-related risks, some of the first recommendations a physician might make would be to make lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking, following a healthy diet, engaging in regular exercise, losing weight if you are overweight, and reducing stress, which can tax the heart.

    Medical Interventions

    • In addition to lifestyle changes, a physician may recommend some cholesterol-modifying medications, medications to open up the arteries (such as calcium channel blockers and nitroglycerin), and beta blockers to lower blood pressure. In some instances, more invasive means of surgery may be required to best access the arteries and increase blood flow, particularly for advanced coronary artery disease. These surgeries include coronary artery bypass surgery or minimally invasive cardiac catheterization procedures.

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