Many factors, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking, cause plaque to form on the vessel wall over time. These plaques enlarge, narrow the vessel, preventing adequate blood flow, creating the disease.
What causes vascular occlusion?
Hypertension, which is one of the most important causes of cardiovascular diseases, is unfortunately considered the main cause of death, responsible for 50 percent of deaths in all developed countries. With hypertension, which has a very important place among the causes of cardiovascular diseases, congestion occurs in the heart vessels. The eight reasons that lead to occlusion of the heart vessels are:
- Hereditary factors
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Cigarette
- Malnutrition
- Not exercising
- High cholesterol
- Extreme stress
Symptoms of Ischemic Heart Disease
Symptoms of ischemic heart disease include fatigue, faintness, and malaise. In addition, chest pain may not be present in every case. In some patients, pain was observed in the neck, jaw, stomach, arm, and ear, and it was determined that there was difficulty breathing. Chest pain alone may not attract the attention of the person at first, as it can be confused with other diseases. This will be a dangerous waste of time during the disease process. Apart from all these symptoms, ischemic heart patients who experience nausea, vomiting, and sweating without feeling pain have also been encountered.
Treatment
ECG, echocardiography, exercise test, heart scintigraphy are applied to people with suspected ischemic heart disease to determine whether there is stenosis in the heart vessels. If there is a narrowing, the vein is opened with methods such as balloons and stents, and the patient is restored to health. In some cases, a surgical procedure is performed, and a bypass operation is performed on the heart vessels.
There are different treatment options for cardiovascular disease. The treatment is planned by considering factors such as the patient's angiography appearance, age, and other accompanying diseases.
Lifestyle change and drug therapy: the factors causing atherosclerosis should be regulated. Smoking is stopped, hypertension is controlled, and blood fats are reduced to normal limits. A special nutrition and exercise program is created for the patient. Medicines given by the cardiologist are used regularly. These drugs may need to be used for life.
Interventional treatments: These are procedures performed with angiography. The occluded vein is reached by entering the body with a catheter from the wrist or groin. A stent or balloon is sent over the catheter to the occluded area. The stenosis is opened by placing a stent or balloon in the area where the vessel is occluded. Today, it is possible to treat even completely occluded vessels with a stent. The stenosis in the mouth and fork of the vessel can also be treated with a stent.
Surgery: Coronary bypass surgery can be performed on patients. If the vessel is completely occluded, if there is occlusion in two or more vessels, if the problem cannot be resolved with interventional methods, or if the patient has developed heart failure, coronary bypass surgery can be applied. In this surgery, the narrowed vessel is disabled. A new vein is placed in its place. Re-blood circulation is provided to the part of the heart that has no blood flow. This vein can be taken from the chest, arm, and leg veins. With the development of technology, coronary bypass surgeries can be performed through small incisions of 2 cm, minimally invasively, or with robotic surgery.
