Coronary Angioplasty/Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Coronary Angiogram by the traditional cardiac catheterisation technique (as described above) is more suitable for patients with higher risk of CAD. This is because it involves inserting a thin flexible tube to reach your heart vessels rather than just imaging. As well as showing what your blood vessels look like (diagnostic), if blockage is found, Dr Khoo can immediately dilate the artery by gently inflating a tiny balloon on the tip of the catheter to squash aside the fatty tissues responsible for the narrowing of the artery. This is often followed by the placement of a stent (a short tube made of stainless steel mesh) to keep the artery open. Most modern stents have a special drug eluting coating that slowly releases a drug to block cell proliferation and prevent re-narrowing of the artery.