Interventional cardiology is a subspeciality of cardiology, dealing with catheter-based treatment of heart diseases, such as coronary artery disease, valvular disease, and congenital heart disease.
- Coronary angioplasty (PCI)
- Coronary thrombectomy
- Valvuloplasty/valve repair/valve replacement
- Correction of congenital abnormalities
They can be done as a preventive procedure, or as an emergency, to treat acute MI and revascularize an occluded vessel.
Coronary angioplasty and stent implantation
PCI is commonly used synonymously with coronary angioplasty; it is a procedure used for treating narrowed coronary vessels.
Coronary angioplasty and stent implantation are minimally-invasive procedures involving the insertion of a catheter through the skin and the femoral/radial/brachial artery into the coronaries, visualization of the vasculature under fluoroscopy, and the inflation of a balloon, and/or the placement of a stent in the site of occlusion.
- Once the catheter is placed in the coronary artery, the vasculasture is visualized using a radio-opaque dye.
- A guidewire is passed into the site of occlusion. The angioplasty catheter is pushed to the site of the guidewire, and the balloon is inflated, compressing the atherosclerotic plaque.
- Balloon angioplasty is rarely done on its own. Typically, a stent is placed on the balloon, and once it inflates, the stent opens and helps keep the