Deborah Joins NIH for Landmark Research
New Technology Offers Patients Nonsurgical Options
Laboratory Accreditation Captures Attention of Medicare

Acute Myocardial Infarction
While the drug-eluting stent has the highest level of public awareness, it is not the only option that has allowed more patients to be fully treated by intervention. According to Christine Gasperetti, MD, Attending Interventional Cardiologist, Deborah Heart and Lung Center, recent research has proven that, during acute myocardial infarction, angioplasty may be more effective in some patients than high doses of clot-busting drugs. This finding has introduced an entirely new population to catheterization laboratories.

“Once treated traditionally with clot-busters, recent research has indicated that some patients, during or up to two hours after the start of an acute myocardial infarction, suffer less heart muscle damage when taken directly for angioplasty,” explained Dr. Gasperetti. “This option is also particularly valuable for older patients who might have contraindications for clot-busters.”

Post-bypass
Because surgical techniques and technologies have improved over decades, patients are living many more years after bypass. While this seems an ideal outcome, it also brings more patients back to the hospital, many years later, with graft occlusions. Many of these patients have reached ages where surgery is then contraindicated, or return with comorbidities that make surgery a higher risk treatment option.

“While Deborah’s surgeons are highly skilled in treating even the oldest patient populations, and successfully treat many of the region’s highest-risk patients, there are times when patients are contraindicated to undergo another bypass surgery without high risk,” explained Dr. Gasperetti. “For these patients, intervention has become a more acceptable and effective option to treat graft occlusions. In addition to general refinements and improvements that have been made to the technology over the years, Deborah offers intervention with distal embolization protection devices, which, during angioplasty procedures, protect plaque from traveling through the artery and causing infarction downstream from the graft stenosis. This technology is particularly successful in treating disease in older grafts.”

Patient-Focused Treatment
Despite intense patient and physician demand, and despite rapid advances in the intervention field, there are still patients for whom surgery is the best option.

There are patients who can’t be treated by catheter-based intervention. There are patients whose diseased arteries are not physically reachable by catheter, patients with multiple stenoses that would require several interventional procedures, and some patients with anatomy that is simply not amenable to intervention. While interventions are drastically increasing, surgery is still – and will be for the foreseeable future – the best option for some patients.

However, with the number of advances in technology and research, and the ongoing evaluation and addition of new technology to Deborah’s arsenal of both surgical and interventional treatment options, Deborah’s cardiologists will be equipped to ensure that each patient is individually evaluated and receives the most appropriate treatment for his or her specific condition.