Periodically recurring angina pain — often described as squeezing, pressure, heaviness and tightness in the chest in people with a certain type of heart disease — can be extremely difficult to treat, but a new Hourglass-shaped stent could be a real advancement, researchers report.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester said people suffering from microvascular disease — a disease that affects the small vessels that carry blood to heart tissue, causing damage to them — improved significantly after receiving the new stent. This is a big change, because, “Patients with heart-related microvascular dysfunction in this study had little ability to control their chronic angina, which severely limited their day-to-day activities,” Mayo. said cardiologist Dr. Amir Lerman. And study the senior author.

What is angina pain?

Also known as a heart attack warning sign, angina is a symptom of heart disease. This happens when your heart stops getting enough oxygenated blood. As a result, your heart may beat faster and harder to get more blood, causing you noticeable pain.

Statistics say that approximately 10 million people in the US experience angina. So, if you have this symptom, you are not alone. And so, according to doctors, it is important to know more about angina, what causes it, and how to manage it in your daily life.

New stent brings significant changes in patients’ health

According to the study published in Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions, RFrequent chest pain is a hallmark of microvascular disease. Major arteries may not become blocked, but very small blood vessels do, and as the heart’s blood supply is reduced, angina episodes occur. The Mayo team said that two-thirds of people who have a diagnostic coronary angiogram for chest pain show signs of microvascular disease.

Typically, doctors can’t offer much to patients in this scenario except prescribing some medicines or asking them to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Of course, stents are used to open large arteries in other scenarios. However, the new stent, with its unique pinch-in-the-middle hourglass design, appears to help restore blood flow in smaller blood vessels.

In a clinical trial that included 30 patients suffering from microvascular disease and angina, more than three-quarters saw significant improvements in their daily lives after receiving a stent.

The team explained that this could mean that a person who couldn’t walk around the block or up a flight of stairs without experiencing chest pain before a stent may now be able to perform those simple tasks easily without any discomfort. Was. “In addition to a reduction in chest pain and being able to comfortably handle more physical activity, most patients in the study saw an association between changes in their coronary flow reserve, which is a measure of maximum blood flow, and changes in their quality of life.” .-life responses to the survey,” Lerman said in a Mayo news release.

“This points to an association between physical measurements and angina symptoms.”

How does a stent work?

According to scientists, the unique design of the stent helps increase pressure on the small vessels of the heart to better redistribute blood flow.

The study also found that the stent is not foolproof and 20-30 percent of patients did not get any relief from the device.

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