Question: Hello Doctor,

This query is regarding my mother who is a diabetic heart patient. She had her By-Pass surgery in the year 2005.

For the past one year she has been complaining of infrequent dull pain in her chest, shoulders and armpits. Even though the pain is dull, her ECG revealed no major cause for concern in the past year. However, for the past few weeks the frequency of dull pain has increased. We got the ECG done once again and this time the doctors suggested that the ECG is not normal and advised her to go for either an angio-graphy or a CT Coronary angiogram. We got the CT Scan done and I am attaching the report of the CT Scan along with this query. The results tell me that Radial to OM is blocked. Seeing the results, the doctor has advised her to go for a Angio-plasty.

My question to you is -
Can the blockage be removed by medications? We basically want to avoid another surgery.
In case the surgery is unavoidable, is it safe to get angio-plasty as she had already had one by-pass done in year 2005?
After seeing the report, how many arteries do you think are blocked? Is the main artery also blocked?
During the bypass, one artery was bypassed. So the bypass artery is still unblocked? Is there a way to tell from the attached report?

Thanks in advance.

XXXXXX

Thank you for the quick answer doctor. I really appreciate it. I have a couple of follow-up questions -

1. Do you mean to suggest that Angio-Plasty would also not be a good option due to her being a diabetic?
2. By surgery did you mean a Heart By-Pass? If yes, a second by-pass is advisable for someone who has already got one?

Best Regards,

XXXXXX