SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Crouse Health is now offering patients with “severely calcified,” diseased coronary arteries a new, minimally invasive treatment option. It uses sonic pressure to “safely break up” calcium blockages that can reduce blood flow to the heart, the health-care provider said in a Jan. 11 news release. The shockwave technology — also known […]
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Crouse Health is now offering patients with “severely calcified,” diseased coronary arteries a new, minimally invasive treatment option.
It uses sonic pressure to “safely break up” calcium blockages that can reduce blood flow to the heart, the health-care provider said in a Jan. 11 news release.
The shockwave technology — also known as intravascular lithotripsy or IVL — enables physicians to fracture the calcium deposits using sonic-pressure waves “so the artery can be safely expanded, and blood flow is restored with the placement of a stent and without unnecessary complications,” Crouse Health explained.
As people with coronary-artery disease age and their condition progresses, plaque in their arteries turns into calcium deposits, which can narrow or block the arteries. Physicians often use stents to open narrowed or blocked arteries to restore blood flow.
Of the approximately 1 million patients who undergo stent procedures each year, 30 percent have problematic calcium that increases their risk for serious complications, Crouse Health said. It’s because the bone-like calcium deposits make the artery rigid and “more difficult or impossible” to reopen with conventional treatments alone.
Such treatments include balloons deployed by a catheter and inflated under high pressure to break up the calcium, Crouse noted.
In contrast, Dr. Joseph Battaglia, Dr. Anil George, and Dr. John Ulahannan — interventional cardiologists with Crouse Medical Practice — use shockwave technology to insert a catheter into the artery and inflate a balloon to a low pressure.
Shockwave IVL delivers sonic-pressure waves that gently break up the calcium deposits in the artery wall. After the calcifications are broken up, the cardiologist expands the balloon to prepare the artery for stenting to improve blood flow, per Crouse Health.
Approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration for coronary use in 2020, shockwave IVL historically has been used to break up kidney stones through lithotripsy, Battaglia said. The treatment has “proven to be extremely safe and effective” in disrupting rigid calcium deposits in coronary arteries.
Funding for the new technology was made possible by a donation from Diane and Bob Miron, longtime Crouse Health supporters and major donors to the Diane and Bob Miron Cardiac Care Center at Crouse.
“We are grateful to the Mirons for their generous and continued support of our cardiac program, which allows us to provide patients with the latest and safest innovations to treat heart disease and improve lives,” Battaglia said in the release.