Cheney Undergoes Angioplasty; A Look at the Treatment Process
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: George W. Bush's running mate, Dick Cheney, is expected to be released from George Washington Hospital some time this weekend. Cheney underwent angioplasty treatment yesterday after suffering what doctors called a very slight heart attack. CNN medical correspondent Rhonda Rowland explains the treatment process.</s>RHONDA ROWLAND, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When a patient is rushed to the hospital with escalating chest pain, the first step is to determine if there's been a heart attack. It's done simply with sophisticated tests that look at enzymes in the blood. If the patient is stable, the next question faced by the doctor and patient: Should aggressive treatment be given immediately, such as angioplasty or heart bypass surgery, or should an exercise stress test and a wait and see approach be used? Mr. Cheney's doctors say minor changes were seen after a second stress test, or EKG, was given. So doctors went forward with a heart catheterization. In this common procedure, the patient remains awake while a catheter is threaded through the groin into the heart. Dye is injected so any blockages in the arteries can be seen on an X-ray. If there is a blockage, which was the case with Cheney, balloon angioplasty can be used to open it.</s>DR. RANDY MARTIN, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Angioplasties in a bypass vessel, a little bit more technically difficult, and that's -- that's certainly -- but it is certainly routinely done. And it's designed to do what the bypass was: to open up that vessel and reestablish blood flow.</s>ROWLAND: When angioplasty is used, cardiologists typically use tiny mesh devices called stents to prop the artery open. Results from a major scientific trial called TACTICS show patients who receive therapy right away, like Cheney, reduce their chances of death, heart attack, and rehospitalization by about 20 percent over the next six months.</s>DR. CHRISTOPHER CANNON, BRIGHAM & WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: In patients who get the current state-of-the-art treatment with platelet blockers and medical treatment and stents during the procedures that they had a significant improvement in their outcome.</s>ROWLAND: The first 24 hours is a critical time for patients who have procedures to open blocked arteries. They may suddenly close and another procedure, or surgery, may be needed. Rhonda Rowland, CNN, Atlanta.