Research Yields Results

There’s been good news on the research front lately for people with age-related health conditions.

A new treatment now being tested opens the option of angioplasty, rather than bypass surgery, for some heart patients.

In angioplasty, a guide wire is threaded through a blood vessel narrowed by deposits of plaque, a stent is inserted to reopen the artery and restore blood flow. However, patients with completely blocked arteries couldn’t have the procedure because the guide wire was unable to penetrate the blockage. About 20 per cent of patients who have angiograms have these impenetrable blockages, called chronic total occlusions.