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Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Methods of Treatment
Coronary artery disease (CAD) may be treated with medicines. If needed, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery may be performed.
A PCI is done in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory (Cath Lab). PCI procedures improve blood flow to the coronary arteries of the heart and include:

• Balloon angioplasty in which a small tube (catheter) with a balloon tip is inserted into the narrow coronary artery. The balloon is slowly inflated to open up the coronary artery.

• Stent placement may be done during PCI. After the balloon is inflated, a small metal device (stent) is inserted to keep the narrow coronary artery open. There are bare metal stents and drug eluding stents (DES).

• Coronary atherectomy removes the artery blockage with either a cutting device or laser treatment.

Today, more than 80 percent of PCI involve the use of stents. This treatment has better early and long-term effects than balloon angioplasty alone.

Balloon angioplasty with the use of bare metal stents has been an effective treatment option. However, within six to nine months about 20 percent of patients have narrowing (restenosis) of the coronary artery requiring another PCI procedure to be performed. Drug eluting stents (DES) help reduce the rate of restenosis to less than 10 percent.

DES are coated with a medicine that prevents unwanted growth of cells that can narrow the coronary artery. The DES uses very small doses of antiproliferative medicines (Sirolimus and Paclitaxel) to deliver the medicine right to the coronary artery and limit the drug's effect on other parts of the body.

Contact
Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute
(866) 662-8467

Cardiac Catheterization Department
(312) 926-5135

Review Date: 04/07