About 17 million people die from cardiovascular disease every year, making it the number one "killer" of humanity. Among them, the most important is coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, which is called coronary heart disease for short. Interventional therapy has become an important treatment for coronary heart disease. Currently, in clinical practice, the determination of whether a patient needs interventional therapy mainly relies on coronary angiography examination. However, this examination uses the diameter of the blood vessels displayed on the plane image to judge the degree of stenosis of the diseased blood vessels, and cannot fully and accurately reflect the degree of blood flow blockage and the nature of the lesion in the vascular lumen. Sometimes, it is also unclear whether interventional therapy is needed.
The coronary artery is the artery that supplies blood to the heart. When it comes to this, you may have to ask, isn't the heart supplying blood to the body? Isn't there blood in the heart? Why do we still need blood supply? We all know that the heart is an organ of our body, and like all other organs, it also needs blood vessels to transport blood in order to survive normally. Only with sufficient blood supply can the heart function properly.
Atherosclerosis of coronary artery is a chronic process, which is often asymptomatic in the early stage. With the progress of atherosclerosis, the arterial lumen will gradually narrow, or even block. Simply put, we can imagine an artery as a water pipe. If the inner wall of the pipe becomes uneven, various impurities can easily accumulate in the damaged area, and over time, the pipe will become blocked. In the early stage of stenosis, some patients have no symptoms in a resting state. However, when there is a significant increase in myocardial oxygen consumption due to exercise and drastic emotional changes, the blood supply from the coronary artery to the heart becomes relatively insufficient. At this time, angina pectoris occurs, manifested as chest tightness, chest pain, etc. If the atheromatous plaque formed by lipid and cell aggregation ruptures, causing thrombosis and blocking the coronary artery, myocardial infarction will occur. If myocardial infarction patients do not receive timely treatment, it can endanger their lives; Even if treated, it can still cause a decrease in heart function; The earlier you receive treatment, the less likely your heart function will decrease.
After some patients undergo coronary angiography, it is found that the degree of vascular stenosis reaches 70%, which should theoretically require intervention treatment. But patients usually have no obvious chest tightness or chest pain symptoms, or the symptoms can be relieved after taking medication. So should intervention therapy be done?
This situation of "doing or not doing" is clinically referred to as critical lesion. Previously, there were no good diagnostic methods for such patients. With the application of intravascular ultrasound, FFR, two major intracavitary imaging and functional examination techniques, and the improvement of intracavitary technology, the understanding of coronary artery lesions in patients has become clearer and more accurate, which is also more beneficial for treatment. Coronary angiography only judges the diameter of blood vessels from a planar perspective, evaluates the degree of stenosis of blood vessels, and cannot understand the degree of stenosis inside the lumen. Sometimes, the degree of stenosis of certain lesions is underestimated or overestimated, leading to improper use of stents. With the popularization of precision treatment and functional examinations, FFR has become increasingly beneficial for disease diagnosis, treatment selection, and prognosis analysis. Along with coronary angiography, it has become a functional auxiliary examination tool for determining coronary blood flow (supply), playing a good guiding role.
A healthy diet suitable for patients with coronary heart disease: control the amount of staple food, with 6 taels of staple food per day for men and 4 taels for women, preferably whole wheat bread, oats, brown rice, potatoes, and pumpkin; Each person should use less than 25 grams of cooking oil per day, and choose olive oil or rapeseed oil more often; Eat fish twice a week and 2 egg yolks; Choose skim milk products; Maintain 1 pound of vegetables and 1-2 fruits daily, paired with an appropriate amount of soy products.
In terms of exercise, one can follow the principle of "one three five seven", which means exercising at least once a day for more than 30 minutes each time, exercising 5 times a week, and the best heart rate for each exercise is above 170. The exercise methods can include walking, jogging, swimming, skipping rope, jumping aerobics, etc.