Post stent placement angina

[janel411]

My dad had a CABG x 4 in 1995.  He had a drug eluding stent placed in a bypass graft on 3/7/2011.  On 3/26/11, he was taken to ER with chest pains at rest.  We have now been told that he will need to be on daily Imdur with larger nitroglyercin tablets for when he is having chest pain.  

My question is if this chest pain could be caused by the coating on the stent.  His stent was coated with everolimus.  I have read some studies linking the drug coated stents with Printzman's angina.  If it is linked to the drug coating do they do anything different than if it's just regular angina?  

Thank  you for your help

[Flycaster305]

Imdur is slow releasing Nitro, I've taken it for several years and it really helped with the angina symptoms.  Another drug, Ranexa, increased my comfort and allowed more activity without angina.
I've had both coated and non-coated stents and always have had some discomfort for a month or so after a procedure. Is your husband taking Plavix?  That is always recommended after the stenting process.
Another thought, that might tie into Chatty's post... after one of my stenting procedures that resulted in two stents in the same artery I had chest discomfort and breathlessness.  A follow up angiogram resulted in a diagnosis of "spontaneous dissection of the RCA artery", the artery between the two stents was leaking.  The cause wasn't identified, but I received another really long stent to repair that area.  A second opinion suggested that a harmonic effect, or spasm, resulted in a breach of the artery.  Every time the heart beat it shook the artery and it finally started to break like a wire that is bent too many times.  I was really lucky to have jumped on the symptom.  
I hope he is taking Imdur or the generic equivalent, and if it doesn't help quickly, report the condition to your doctor.  I might add that when he starts taking Imdur he can expect the mother of all headaches for a couple of days, but it will go away.  Don't have a glass of spirits when starting this drug!
Stay in touch

[ChatterAlly]

If he is having chest pains while resting it seems it may be vasospasms.  I have these and my biggest complaint is the spasms that wake me from a dead sleep. I have to get up and take a Nitro tablet to stop the pain. I have had as many as 5 in the same night.  The odd thing about these spasms is they started after the stent was placed in '04. As soon as the stent was placed in the artery it (possibly that part of my heart) went into a spasm. The same thing happened when they put the stent in my Iliac artery to restore blood flow to my leg. My leg went into a spasm. The angina I had after the stent in my heart wasn't properly disgnosed until April of last year. If what Ed suggests doesn't help I would encourage you to do a search on vasospasms or microvascular disease. Knowing what i am dealing with now helps me a lot. I know now I am not having small heart attacks. The interesting part of your question is the link there is to the drug. I wonder why this was never considered with my stent? Not sure. But I do hve Raynaud's also, and I think there has to be a connection between the spasms of Raynauds and the coronary artery spasms.  I am definitely going to be doing more research.  One other note, I was told to take a magnesium supplement to aid with the spasms.  Take care, Ally

[ed34]

I believe everyone seems to have different reactions to stenting. When plaque exists and is ballooned, the plaque is basically crushed into the artery wall and does cause trauma to the vessel. I had 2 stents exactly 2 weeks ago and after the procedure I had chest pains and throat discomfort. I honestly believed the procedure had failed, even though the report said "excellent results". I was told that I had to drink LOTS of water each day because it helps the artery to recover and removes the contrast dye from the body. I'm not sure why water would help an artery, but that's what I was told. Each day I noticed a TINY improvement and now 2 weeks later there's just a tiny amount of throat discomfort, but no chest pains. I'm not saying this is what is happening with your Father, but I have heard many people say it took a while before the stent seemed to settle.