Coronary CTO stands for a chronic total occlusion, which is a one hundred percent blockage in a coronary artery. These arteries are the ones that feed blood back to the heart. So it's a blocked artery that's been there for at least three months. Patients that actually feel their CTO are gonna feel either shortness of breath with activity, they might have chest pressure with activity, whether that's walking around, going upstairs, walking their dog, or activities in their house.
But the other thing they can feel is decreased exercise tolerance. So they may have been able to do certain activity in the past, but now they have to stop because they're short of breath, tired, or have chest pressure. So the way that a CTO is diagnosed is with a coronary angiogram or a heart cath. And typically what we're looking for is a one hundred percent blockage in an artery.
And almost one hundred percent of the time, we're able to see branches that the body has built around the heart to feed that area since it can't get through the one hundred percent blockage. The first line treatment is always medications. We typically put them on a beta blocker to slow their heart rate down, but in patients who still have symptoms, in those patients we offer what's called a PCI or a Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, which is kind of a complicated way to say that we try to stent it. Here at Baptist, we've had an over ninety five percent success rate in fixing CTOs.
Once someone has a successful PCI of their CTO, they see a dramatic difference in their symptoms. They are no longer short of breath when they walk. They no longer have chest pressure or pain when they do any activities. And they're able to exercise more.
So their quality of life, for sure, improves.
