Stents and Chest Pain Described
Stents, small metal scaffolding devices placed inside blood vessels round the heart, are employed treat conditions that result when arteries grow to be narrow or blocked.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton underwent a procedure to put two stents in a of his coronary arteries Thursday after experiencing chest “discomfort,” his foundation said.
A stent is incredibly able at reducing chest pain and treating heart disease, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, president of the American Heart Association.
In 2004, Clinton underwent a quadruple bypass operation to free four blocked arteries. For somebody who has a history of heart related illnesses, heart attack may be the first concern, Yancy said.
Putting two stents in a single coronary artery suggests the problem was that one of several bypass grafts completely closed, and doctors needed to fix his regular artery within the heart, said Dr. Michael Lee, assistant clinical professor on the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. Another possibility is the bypass graft itself was blocked, but this would have required just one stent, he said.
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Breast Cancer Walk Goes Forward
Light rain, 40-degree temperatures and 20-mph winds are in the forecast, but those conditions won’t stop Sunday’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk at Jones Beach State Park.
The American Cancer Society-sponsored event will have rolling registration between 8 and 11 a.m. at Field 5 - rain or shine.
“Wear a hat, gloves and dress in layers,” advised News 12 meteorologist Rich Hoffman.
Anne Thorsen, organizer of the 5-mile walk, said the “Fight Like a Girl” sweatshirts for sale and the free pink “Survivor” T-shirts may not be enough to stay warm.
More than 50,000 participants walked last year, involving “every demographic that there is on Long Island. There’s schools, sports teams and government corporations. It’s really the whole Long Island community.”
Participants are urged to carpool. Free parking will be provided.
The registration tent is busiest from 8 to 9 a.m., so walkers who want to avoid the crowds should plan to arrive after 10 a.m.
Walkers can start the course anytime between 8 and 11 a.m.
“When you go up to that boardwalk and you see the little dots of pink,” Thorsen said, “you know that you’re making a difference.”
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The October 2009 Issue Of Ophthalmology (The Highlights)
Highlights of October’s Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, include good news on preserving vision in people with type 1 diabetes, a warning from the Cardiovascular Health Study for macular degeneration patients, and a report on how vision impacts well-being across the lifespan.
Today’s Type 1 Diabetes Patients Enjoy Better Vision than Those in Decades Past
People diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in recent years are less likely to develop diabetes-related vision loss than those diagnosed in earlier years, says a new study funded by the National Eye Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Forecasts of visual impairment prevalence in T1D patients may need to be amended, the researchers suggest, since current predictions assume that the earlier incidence rates will continue. Ronald Klein, MD, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences assessed visual acuity over 25 years in 955 people diagnosed with T1D in one of four time periods, with the earliest defined as “before 1960″ and the latest as “1975 through 1979.”
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