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Doctor insights on: What Is The Number Of Coronary Arteries In The Heart

See below: Lad ("left anterior descending" artery)--affects anterior (front) wall of the left ventricle, and apex (the tip). Circumflex artery--affects the lateral wall of left ventricle, and usually part of the posterior (back). Right coronary artery--affects inferior (bottom) wall of left ventricle and all of the right ventricle (if occluded proximally enough in its course). ...Read more

Pressure: The blood moves from an area of higher blood pressure to an area of lower BP. That's why, in order to be alive, you must have blood pressure! ...Read more

Yes: More than likely you have the larger vessel system that is dominant .That is normal. ...Read more

No: Gout is just a marker for increased heart risk. Lowering uric acid levels has never been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease. ...Read more

Nope: They don't.

Yes: Yes, a coronary angiogram is the most widely used test to look for blockages in the arteries of the heart and to decide the best treatment option (medication only vs stent vs bypass surgery). ...Read more

By decreasing oxygen: The heart muscle depends on oxygen supplied by the coronary arteries to effectively function. When the artery is narrowed it can decrease the supply of oxygen and decrease the force of the muscle contraction. The stroke volume is a measure of how much blood the heart forces out with each beat. ...Read more

Left main: most of the blood to the left ventricle passes thru the left main. That is why it is such a serious lesion. ...Read more

Multiple ways: Coronary artery disease can cause symptoms, heart damage, or death. Symptoms include chest pain or shortness of breath. Heart damage is typically do to myocardial infarction (heart attack). Death can be due to heart failure, heart attack, or lethal arrhythmia. ...Read more

Proactive care: Big topic. Briefly: maintain healthy weight, exercise regularly, eat healthy diet, don't use tobacco, limit alcohol consumption, manage stress, have regular physicals with a physician focused on proactive care. Eval generally looks for high blood pressure, diabetes/pre-diabetes/insulin resistance, cholesterol panel. More advanced "cholesterol" testing is available and better at predicting risk. ...Read more

Emergency: Blockage in the left main coronary artery is considered an emergency condition requiring urgent intervention by angioplasty or bypass surgery. This situation is associated with high mortality if left alone. ...Read more

No: Uric acid is not a cause of coronary artery disease. Hypertension is a very common condition and if it coexists with gout, the hypertension can lead to worsening coronary artery disease. However, the gout does not affect the coronary arteries. ...Read more

Not true: In fact this is a beta blocker, the type of med given routinely to people with coronary artery issues. Why are you taking methotrexate? ...Read more

Heart attach: Yes it is so important for your doctors (pcp & cardio) to get to know you. Coronary heart disease not always has typical symptoms of angina radiating to neck/left arm, nausea or vomiting. It could be manifested as fatigue , indigestion leg swelling, or no symptom. ...Read more

Bypass surgery: everything is a balance between risk/benefit. often with a > 50% left main blockage, a bypass surgery is the safest choice. medical therapy alone carries a high risk of sudden death due to the severity of the blockage. a stent placement there, though relatively simple - might have a catastrophic outcome if any slight thing went wrong. a stent is indicated if surgery is higher than usual risk. ...Read more

Sometime in 1960: Click on history:http://en.M.Wikipedia.Org/wiki/coronary_artery_bypass_surgery#section_1 but also look at dr green in new york ( as i recall) that popularized this procedure. ...Read more