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| No cure for heart disease, Bill Clinton's case shows |
| Marilynn Marchione |
| 3/1/2010 |
| Bill Clinton has a new lease on life, but there's no cure for the heart disease that has twice forced the former president to get blocked arteries fixed. Treatments like the quadruple bypass surgery Clinton had in 2004 last about a decade on average. Then the blood vessels used to create detours around the clogged arteries start to get blocked, too. One such blockage sent Clinton to the hospital on Thursday. Instead of fixing it, doctors reopened the original clogged artery and placed two mesh props called stents to keep it open. It's something he's likely to need again, heart experts say. * * * Clinton has not had a heart attack and has done everything right since his bypass — eating well, exercising, keeping his blood pressure and cholesterol in check, said his cardiologist, Dr. Allan Schwartz at New York Presbyterian Hospital. "This was not a result of his lifestyle or his diet," Schwartz said at a news conference Thursday night. Since the bypass, "he has really toed the line." And what good does that do, you may ask? It can keep heart disease from getting worse and fresh blockages forming in new places, said Dr. Spencer King, a cardiologist at St. Joseph's Heart and Vascular Institute in Atlanta and past president of the American College of Cardiology. * * * About 1 million artery-opening angioplasty procedures are done each year in the United States. Nearly 1 in 5 patients who have one have previously had a bypass operation, said Dr. Ralph Brindis, a cardiologist at California-based Kaiser Permanente health plan and incoming president of the cardiology college. To view complete article go to: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-02-12-clinton-heart_N.htm |
| Additional Information: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-02-12-clinton-heart_N.htm |