Category Archives: Health 2.0

The Stent Blog Has a New Look

Burt at his laptop Hard to believe it, but I started this blog eight years ago! Ouch!

So it’s certainly ripe (more like over-ripe) for a bit of a change — you know, we need to re-invent things at least once a decade…. So here it is. We’ve designed a new look but, more importantly, we now will be able to link more easily to a variety of social networking tools, show off our Twitter feed and post appropriate comments from our readers.

And, even more importantly, our posts will have category tags so you’ll be able to find all my scintillating insights into the various controversies of the day, such as Appropriate Use Criteria or Fractional Flow Reserve or the Transradial Approach.

As with all change, this transition is a work in progress…or, in this case, regress. Which is to say, posts prior to March 2012 are still in the old school format, and can be accessed in our archives. But, as time goes on, we will be importing and tagging our older posts, all the way back to October 2004, into this new format.

Hope you all approve. Your comments are, of course, welcome.

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Filed under Social Networking, Web Site

Happy 20th Anniversary to TransRadial Intervention (TRI)

Dr. Ferdinand Kiemeneij

Dr. Ferdinand Kiemeneij

I’ve written about this before, when Dr. Ferdinand Kiemeneij let me know back in April that this year was the 20th anniversary of the first angioplasty and stent placement performed via the radial artery in the wrist.

The procedure was done by Dr. Kiemeneij in The Netherlands — and it was exactly twenty years ago today when Dr. Kiemeneij taught the band to play!

And play it has. Many countries in the world now do the majority of interventional procedures via the wrist artery — and, alas, the United States is far behind the curve. Less than 10% of procedures are done this way here — but that too is changing. Continue reading

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Filed under Health 2.0, Innovators, Transradial Approach

Myocardial Bridging: Heart Patients and Social Networking

Reyna Robles

Reyna Roble

Angioplasty.Org’s Heart Patient Forum contains 10,000 posts in 200 topics; it receives 50,000 page views a month, from Boston and Biloxi to Britain and Bangladesh. Patients share stories and questions about heart disease, stents, angioplasty, bypass surgery, allergic reactions, medications and the occasional “odd” topic — in this case “Myocardial Bridging.”

Well, not so odd to Reyna Robles, one of the many women who have posted to this topic, trying to find help, trying to find others in their situation, trying to find answers. Continue reading

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Filed under Myocardial Bridging, Patient Experience, Social Networking

AAA Stent Graft Revisited

Kevin Morgan, aka FitOldDogLast year at this time, I wrote about a patient who had been posting in our Patient Forum. He had received a stent graft to treat an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and wanted to share his story, and also wanted to find other AAA patients. This type of aneurysm was previously only treatable via open surgery. But with advances in device technology, patients were able to receive a AAA stent graft percutaneously, through a catheter in the femoral artery (groin/leg) much like standard angioplasty. Continue reading

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Filed under Patient Empowerment, Patient Experience, Patients, Social Networking

Heart Stent Success Stories

Coronary StentsI just wanted to share a patient’s posting from earlier today on Angioplasty.Org’s Patient Forum Topic titled, “Exercise, Sport, Physical Activity After Stent“:

It’s great to hear of everyone’s victories recovery-wise, both major and minor. I had 3 coronary stents in Nov 2010 during 3 separate procedures and the cardio told me exercise as I wish… So, 2 10km running races and a half-marathon completed since the stents went in, and I’m now training for triathlons! Continue reading

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Filed under Patient Experience, Patients, Social Networking

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Stent Graft Athlete

Kevin One of the things about working at Angioplasty.Org that warms my heart (pun intended) is connecting with patients around the world. Our Patient Forum gets posts from the U.S., U.K., Pakistan, Poland, India, Iran, China, Chile and…North Carolina. That’s where Kevin Morgan lives and where he publishes his new blog, athletewithstent.com.

All too often, our Forum serves as a kind of complaint department — where patients write in about problems they are having after stents, angioplasty, angiograms, etc. They usually find our Forum through search engines like Google (e.g. look up “Stents Plavix Aspirin“). And these posts are important because on our Forum people can share stories and discover they are not alone. Continue reading

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Filed under Patient Empowerment, Patients, Social Networking, Video