Doctors attack heart disease with new techniques and potent drugs Charles Weiner, 45, was trudging through Boston's snowy streets one
night when he suddenly felt a gripping pain in his chest. In the
previous eight years he had had two similar experiences, but after
thorough physicals, including blood tests and electrocardiograms,
doctors could find nothing wrong with his heart and attributed the
pains to a mild gall bladder attack or chest muscle strain. This time,
though, Weiner was given a new diagnostic test. Doctors injected a
radioactive substance into his bloodstream, then took pictures of his
heart with a special camera that detects radioactivity. The pictures
revealed that his heart was not getting an adequate supply of blood,
and further tests showed that the coronary arteries were blocked in
several places. Weiner underwent bypass surgery, which eased his
discomfort and may have prolonged his life. Dana Wilson, 41, a lumber company manager in Mehama, Ore., had been
taking drugs to control the occasional irregular beating of his heart
following a massive heart attack. But the treatment proved
unsuccessful; one day several months after the attack, his heart began
to race, reaching 250 beats per minute before returning to normal.
Doctors turned to an innovative method of studying arrhythmias. They
threaded electrodes into his heart and electrically stimulated the
tissue to induce the erratic beating. Trying different drugs, they
learned that none would be helpful in treating Wilson's condition. But
by moving the electrodes around, doctors located the areas of heart
tissue that seemed to be generating the faulty rhythms. Last April
surgeons operated and removed the suspect tissue. David Clendenen, 58, an electrical contractor in Sacramento, had never
had any indication of heart trouble. But one morning last March, he
suddenly felt “like there was an elephant sitting on my chest.”
Realizing he was having a heart attack, he called for help and was
rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Emergency room physicians
stabilized his condition and transferred him to a special laboratory
for a delicate experimental procedure. A long, thin plastic tube was
inserted into an artery in his leg and gently pushed through the blood
vessels all the way up into the aorta to the coronary arteries. A
radiopaque substance was injected into the coronary vessels, and X-ray
pictures were taken, revealing a blood clot. Doctors infused an
anticlotting drug through the tube. Within an hour, the clot had
dissolved, blood flow was reestablished, and Clendenen was spared
extensive heart damage.
