Ischemia Study Patient

There are two treatments doctors use to treat Ischemia.  Ischemia is when a heart artery narrows and may not receive enough blood to work normally. Both treatments are used by doctors around the world and are not experimental. The purpose of this study is to learn more about which of the two standard ways to treat Ischemia saves more lives and prevents more heart attacks. The first treatment is by using medicines and lifestyle changes to control symptoms (chest pains) and reduce serious events (such as heart attacks). Medicines that are routinely used for this include aspirin and cholesterol-lowering drugs. Lifestyle changes may include changing what and how much you eat, exercising more, and not smoking. Another way uses a procedure to open narrowed arteries with a balloon and or heart surgery to bypass the problem artery. Stents are small metal mesh tubes that are placed into heart arteries to prop them open. Bypass is a surgical operation to insert a blood vessel from your leg or chest to go around the blocked area in the heart artery. Doctors make the choice between stents and bypass surgery based on which procedure is thought to provide the best result.