Advantages of stents include: They help blood flow better through the artery where they're placed. Along with angioplasty, they can stop a heart attack. They improve your symptoms, such as shortness of breath and chest pain (when your provider places a stent in your coronary artery).
Your doctor might suggest that you have a tube called a stent put into the airway to keep it open. This can help you to breathe more easily.
Angioplasty and stenting are life-saving procedures that can improve blood flow to your heart. After this treatment for coronary artery disease (CAD), you should have more energy and CAD symptoms should disappear. Symptoms like fatigue, chest pain or shortness of breath can indicate in-stent restenosis.
Sometimes, when arteries become completely blocked, a new blood supply develops around the blockage. This new blood supply, called collaterals, won't deliver as much blood to your heart. This can lead to those same symptoms of chest pain and shortness of breath.
Heart conditions such as angina, heart attacks, heart failure and some abnormal heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation can all cause shortness of breath. These conditions may cause breathlessness for different reasons.
Chest pain (angina) that worsens when you engage in physical activities. Shortness of breath that accompanies physical activity. Chest pain that doesn't improve when you've taken medication or made lifestyle changes.
If shortness of breath happens when you're clearly not exerting yourself, when you're doing something you normally could do without feeling winded, or comes on suddenly, those are warning signs that a heart issue could potentially be to blame.
Stage 2 of Congestive Heart Failure
Stage two of congestive heart failure will produce symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, or heart palpitations after you participate in physical activity.
While there are many causes of shortness of breath, the most common causes are lung disease, heart disease, or deconditioning (lack of exercise, especially in people who are overweight or obese).
Chest pain generally should decrease. You may be better able to exercise. Having angioplasty and stenting doesn't mean your heart disease goes away. You'll need to continue healthy lifestyle habits and take medications as prescribed by your doctor.
Use Pursed Lip Breathing when walking. Inhale through your nose and exhale through pursed lips. Exhale slowly and comfortably, not forcibly, breathing out twice as long as you breath in. This will keep your breathing slow and restore oxygen to your body more rapidly.
They can be more physically active, travel, feel more energetic, and notice improvement in overall health. As long as one follows their doctor's advice and consults the doctor regularly, there is every chance that one has a longer and healthier life span post an angioplasty.
Stents can treat heart attacks and angina when used in your coronary arteries. They can also be used in the legs (to treat peripheral arterial disease) and occasionally in the neck (if you have a narrowing of the carotid artery that supplies your brain) or the renal arteries, which supply the kidneys.
How Is Shortness of Breath Treated? The type of treatment depends on the underlying cause. If you are diagnosed with heart failure, you may be treated with medications such as fluid pills (diuretics), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, digoxin, and beta-blockers.
Diuretics (water tablets)
As more fluid passes out, there is less fluid left in your blood, so the excess water in your lungs and legs is drawn back into your blood, relieving your symptoms of breathlessness and oedema. Diuretics are usually taken in the morning.
Warning signs and symptoms of heart failure include shortness of breath, chronic coughing or wheezing, swelling, fatigue, loss of appetite, and others.
Seek emergency medical care if your shortness of breath is accompanied by chest pain, fainting, nausea, a bluish tinge to lips or nails, or a change in mental alertness — as these may be signs of a heart attack or pulmonary embolism.
Shortness of breath is often a symptom of heart and lung problems. But it can also be a sign of other conditions like asthma, allergies or anxiety. Intense exercise or having a cold can also make you feel breathless.
Most cases of shortness of breath are due to heart or lung conditions. Your heart and lungs are involved in transporting oxygen to your tissues and removing carbon dioxide, and problems with either of these processes affect your breathing.
They improve your symptoms, such as shortness of breath and chest pain (when your provider places a stent in your coronary artery). They may keep your artery from getting too narrow again. People who have a heart stent put in recover faster than those who have coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG).
By clinical guidelines, an artery should be clogged at least 70 percent before a stent should be placed, Resar said.
You will be asleep for most stent procedures, so plan to have someone else take you home. You may go home the same day or after a few days, depending on the type of stent and your other medical conditions.