What is Coronary Artery Disease?

All tissues in our body need oxygen and nutrients to survive. The transportation of these vital substances to the extreme points of our body is through the blood. The task of our heart is to ensure the circulation of blood in the circulatory system. A person's heart that beats 60 times a minute pumps about 5.5 liters of blood through his body every minute.

This means that approximately 8 tons of blood is pumped into our body every day. Located inside the rib cage, behind the breastbone (the board of faith), our heart is largely made up of muscle tissue. The arteries that supply the oxygen-rich and nutrient-rich blood that our heart needs in order to function properly, that is, the arteries that feed the heart itself, are called coronary arteries. Coronary arteries are the first branches of the aorta, the main artery of our body, after leaving the heart.

If we compare our body to a car for better understanding, our heart is the engine of that car and the coronary arteries are the fuel hoses of that engine. Atherosclerosis that causes obstruction or stenosis in fuel hoses is called “coronary artery disease”. The cause of atherosclerosis is cholesterol-containing plaques that accumulate over the years on the wall of the coronary arteries. Depending on the severity of the stenosis caused by these plaques, while some patients do not have any complaints, as the stenosis progresses, complaints such as chest pain and/or shortness of breath, which appear during work or with emotional stress and are relieved by rest, may occur. Patients with coronary artery disease are candidates for a heart attack later in life. The cause of the heart attack is the sudden rupture of the cholesterol plaque in the coronary artery and the sudden cessation of blood flow in the already narrowed vessel due to the clot sitting on it. In other words, the contraction (operation) of the heart tissue (engine) that cannot receive the blood (fuel) brought by the coronary artery (fuel hose) suddenly breaks down. If the blood flow to the heart muscle, which can withstand anemia for a limited time, cannot be restored in a short time, the muscle tissue in the affected area begins to die irreversibly. The closer the blockage in the coronary artery is to the aorta (since a large heart tissue cannot receive blood), the more likely it is to be life-threatening. You can visualize this situation as follows. If we compare the coronary artery system to the pipes that carry water from the dam to the city, the main pipe coming out of the dam carries water to our homes by branching and decreasing in diameter as it disperses to the neighborhoods. A blockage in the pipe that brings water to our apartment will only cut off the flow of water to the houses in our apartment, while a blockage in the main pipe coming out of the dam will leave the entire city without water and chaos will ensue. Listen to Your Heart's Voice Deaths due to cardiovascular diseases still rank first all over the world. Listen to your heart, do not ignore your complaints. Even if you have no complaints; If there is a sudden death of unknown cause in your family, If you have coronary artery disease in your blood relatives, If you have diabetes that is high enough to require you to use insulin, If you have high cholesterol, If you smoke, If you have had a stroke or partial paralysis, If you have leg artery disease, If you have coronary artery disease You may also be at risk.

Contact your cardiologist as soon as possible. Tomorrow may be too late.

How is the treatment method decided in coronary artery disease?

At our hospital, a committee has been established to assist patients in your condition in making further diagnosis and treatment decisions. Cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, anaesthesiology, internal medicine, chest and occasionally neurology specialists take part in this committee, which is called “Yücelen Hospitals Heart Team”. Evaluating all aspects of the patients brought to the committee with an approach focused on the patient, not the disease, the Heart Team offers the patient the most appropriate and most beneficial treatment method in the light of national and international guidelines. In this way, it aims to help the patient make a decision about his own treatment.

How Does the Heart Team Decide Which Treatment Method is Best for the Patient?

While determining the treatment method to be recommended to a patient with coronary artery disease, the heart team members decide according to the following parameters: The patient's complaint, The patient's additional medical problems, if any, The presence of additional heart problems that cannot be resolved by any other method other than surgery, The contraction strength of the heart, The surgery or the intervention. High risk of life, Location and number of stenosis in the coronary arteries, The degree of complexity of the coronary anatomy, Expected life expectancy of the patient, The probability of success of the intervention and risk of complications, Whether all coronary stenosis of the patient can be intervened with the procedure to be performed.