Hello,
Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query.
From the description that you have given, it appears that you father is having a coronary blockade. The same can be confirmed by doing an angiography and the block can be removed using angioplasty. In your case the other possibility of the "block" could be that there is a conduction block. In this case yes the doctor is right by advising a pace maker. To opine in detail we will be needing the tracing of ECG record and the ECHO report as well.
Hope I am able to solve your concerns to the best possible extent.
If you need any further help in detail, I will be more than happy to help you.
Wish you good health.
Regards,
Dr. Pooja Reddy MD

Hello,
Thank you for your query.

There are many risk factor for blockage(ischemic heart disease).
The common are diabetes mellitus,hypertension,smoking,old age,hyperlipidemia etc.
This problem can be identified by complaints of the patient(central chest pain,exersional breathlessness) & some relevant investigation(ecg,echo,angiogram).
In case of your father,if ecg indicate some blockage then angiogram can be done to confirm & intensification of the problem.
There are some treatment option for this.
Medical management,per cutaneous intervention & angioplasty are common among them.

Pacemaker usually prescribed for a patient having cardiac conduction defect like AV block,sick sinus disease etc.
An ECG is sometimes enough for diagnosis of this cases.
If these diseases are symptomatic then permanent pacemaker is mandatory.

I hope I have some help of your query.
Take care.