"Jailed" artery

[richardlyons]

Recently, I had four (4) sternts implanted in a major branch of my Circumflex Artery. Two (2) of the stents were used to open area of 75% & 90%  blockage respectively.  The other 2 stents*  were implanted in areas of no blockage between the two (2) placed in areas of actual blocakge.?s are: 1) What was the purpose of putting in these (*) stents ? 2)  A smaller artery feding off the stented Circumflex branch was "jailed" i.e had one of the stents placed across its junction with the Circumflex. This caused an overnight increase of 0.1 uom in my troponin (sp ?) level. It has noe been  six (6) weeks since these stents implan and I am having difficulty getting past  doing 0.4 miles at 3 mph on my treadmill. Before the implants, I was doing 4.5 miles/hr on a daily basis. Now, I am having angina (as back pain and some shortness of breath) when I try to increase my endurance and speed. Is this due to this "jailed" artery ? Any options available to overcome this ? I am a very physically active person and this is proving very frustrating to me. Thanksss.

[ed34]

I believe that there has been a lot of research into jail stents recently to gather data from
many patients post procedure. During the stenting, the cardiologist may have to make a
compromise. If saving the large major native vessel (such as your Circumflex) means
blocking a smaller sub branch then it is likely it will be jailed. It is likely that the two
stents were placed inbetween the other two because the cardiologist felt it likely that it
will collapse.
I know that in the procedure I will have in less than three weeks will involve a stent
being placed across my main left stem, completely blocking the circumflex. As this
is my only good vessel, it will cause death. However, the hospital I will be attending
have punched holes through the side of stents successfully in a number of patients,
giving a patent junction. I believe that maybe a cardiologist could do this to your
jail stent but a nuclear scan will have to be performed first to ensure that the heart
tissue being suffocated is still alive or dormant. If the tissue has died then it is pointless
revascularizing that area of the heart because the blood will never be used anyway.