The Sangaudio Lessona Medical Center has a specialist outpatient clinic with an excellent medical staff and agreements with specialized centers.
Among these, the one with the Monzino IRCCS Cardiology Center in Milan, where Dr. Sebastiano Gili cardiologist of the Department of Interventional Cardiology works.
Here are Dr. Gili’s tips for a healthy heart and to avoid heart attacks and strictures.
“The coronaries – begins Gili – are the arteries that surround the heart, and which carry out the task of distributing the blood, oxygen and nutrients it needs to the heart to contract relentlessly and perform its function as the body’s“ pump ”. The coronary arteries can undergo processes of formation, in their walls, of plaques consisting mainly of cholesterol deposits. Deposits that can grow to obstruct the passage of blood in the arteries. A pathological narrowing of the coronary artery caused by a plaque is called “stenosis”.
To avoid these problems, we start from prevention, therefore a healthy lifestyle, and from the elimination of the so-called “risk factors”. “Mainly cigarette smoking, – specifies Gili – arterial hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes mellitus. Therapy with drugs that thin the blood and lower cholesterol plays a fundamental role in reducing the growth of plaques and the risks associated with their presence “.
Symptoms of stenosis are angina pectoris, shortness of breath during exertion (dyspnea), myocardial ischaemia (i.e. insufficient oxygen supply during exertion or stress). Symptoms detectable through special tests.
“In these cases – explains Gili – it may be necessary to intervene to restore normal blood flow to the site of the coronary obstruction. The technique of first choice today is percutaneous angioplasty, a minimally invasive, non-surgical medical procedure. By means of small incisions in the wrist or groin, in the absence of general anesthesia, “catheters” (long and thin tubes) are introduced into the circulatory system, which are advanced to the point of origin of the coronary arteries. Through the catheters are positioned at the level of the plate of the balloons, which are inflated to dilate the stenosis, and one or more stents, metal mesh tubes for the delivery of the drug, implanted in the site of the obstruction to ensure the long-term seal of the angioplasty. The released drug blocks the growth of the cells trapped under the stent ”.
Another type of angioplasty is coronary angioplasty, which has two types of benefits. “Benefits such as – underlines Gili – the improvement of symptoms caused by coronary obstruction and, in the most serious cases, the reduction of future adverse cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, unstable angina, death due to cardiac causes. Coronary angioplasty is also used in emergencies, such as acute myocardial infarction. Infarction is a pathology caused by the sudden appearance of a coronary obstruction, generally due to the formation of a thrombosis due to the rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque: here coronary angioplasty restores blood flow quickly and with excellent results and limits damage caused by the heart attack “.
For a consultation with Dr. Gili and with all the other specialists of Centro Medico Sangaudio, these are the contacts: tel. 015981825–015981709; mail [email protected]; internet www.centromedicosangaudio.it.
Sangaudio Medical Center is in Lessona, in piazza Valerio Grosso 1.