Coronary Artery Disease Specialist

What is coronary artery disease?

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common cardiovascular condition affecting the supply of oxygen-rich blood to your heart. It's a frequent cause of symptoms like chest pain and breathlessness and could lead to a heart attack.

When you have CAD, your arteries become narrower due to a substance called plaque collecting inside them. The plaque, which consists primarily of excess cholesterol, sticks to the artery walls, reducing space for blood to flow.

Coronary artery disease is often a result of an unhealthy lifestyle, with a poor diet high in cholesterol and a lack of exercise. Being overweight or obese and smoking can significantly increase your risk of developing CAD.

How is coronary artery disease diagnosed?

Your provider at Cary Cardiology, P.A., diagnoses CAD based on your symptoms and a physical examination, followed by one or more procedures such as an EKG (electrocardiogram).

An EKG measures the electrical activity in your heart, which can highlight abnormalities and show if you're having a heart attack. If the EKG doesn't show any problems, you might need to have a cardiac stress test, where you exercise while attached to the EKG machine.

Recording your heart's activity when it's pumping hard can reveal issues that aren't apparent on a resting EKG. An echocardiogram or stress echocardiogram, which produces images of your heart using ultrasound, might be necessary as well.

In some patients, it's necessary to perform a cardiac catheterization procedure called an angiogram. Your doctor feeds a catheter (a piece of medical tubing) into an artery leading to your heart and injects a dye. Using X-rays, your provider can see the stain highlighting narrow or blocked sections of your artery.

What treatments might I need for coronary artery disease?

If your coronary artery disease results from unhealthy habits like smoking or a high cholesterol diet, making changes is always helpful. The Cary Cardiology, P.A., team, can advise you on what you should do to improve your heart health.

Medication might also be necessary, especially if you're at risk of a heart attack. Some of the medicines that reduce the severity of your coronary artery disease include anticoagulants (blood-thinners) and cholesterol-lowering pills.

Badly blocked arteries might require further interventions such as coronary angioplasty, stent placement, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), or transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).

If you have symptoms of heart trouble, Cary Cardiology, P.A., can determine if you have coronary artery disease and provide the treatment you need. Call the office most convenient to you or book an appointment online today.