Reviewed by medical experts • For informational purposes only
Medicines for everyone, stents and bypass for arteries that need them, cardiac rehab to rebuild - the three lanes of CAD care.
CAD treatment has three lanes that work together: medicines for everyone, procedures to reopen or bypass critically narrowed arteries, and lifestyle-cardiac rehabilitation to rebuild and protect. The mix depends on how much is blocked, where, and how the heart is doing.
Statins to stabilize plaque, antiplatelets to prevent clots, BP and diabetes medicines to protect arteries, beta-blockers and nitrates to ease angina. Every CAD patient, stent or no stent, lives on this foundation - procedures do not replace it.
Supervised exercise programs, dietitian-planned meals, tobacco quitting, stress management, and return-to-normal-life coaching. Cardiac rehab after a heart attack or surgery measurably reduces repeat events and death - it is treatment, not a spa, and it is underused in India.
Chest pain beyond 15-20 minutes: 102/108, sit, chew aspirin only if advised. Hospital: ECG, blood tests (troponin), emergency angioplasty to reopen the artery within the golden hours - or clot-dissolving medicine where cath labs are far. Every hour saved is heart muscle saved.
Reviews on schedule, medicines daily and uninterrupted, lipids checked to target (LDL under 70 after an event), vaccination (flu shots protect cardiac patients), and knowing that CAD is managed for life - excellently, with a full normal life the expected outcome for most.
Medicines for everyone, stents and bypass for the arteries that need them, cardiac rehab to rebuild - plus emergency angioplasty for heart attacks: the lanes that together turn CAD into a manageable long-term condition.
Written By
Dr. Daksh
BDS
Reviewed By
Dr. Varun Gupta
MD Pharmacology, MBBS
Last updated on
27 Sep 2022 • 06:23 PM (IST)
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