How to remove blood clots in coronary artery?

How to remove blood clots in coronary artery?

Coronary arteries are blood vessels supplying oxygenated blood to the heart. Clots in a coronary artery can block the blood flow to a region of the heart muscle, causing a heart attack, known technically as myocardial infarction. Clots in the coronary artery can be dissolved by clot busting drugs like streptokinase, urokinase, tissue plasminogen activator, tenecteplase or reteplase.

Clots can also be removed by introducing a clot aspiration device into the coronary artery and sucking out the clot. This is known as thrombus aspiration. Another type of device can fragment the clot using a jet and then suck it out.

Still another method is to use a balloon catheter, which is a small tube with a balloon attached to the tip,  to plaster the clot on to the coronary artery wall and stent the vessel with a metallic tube known as coronary stent. The procedure is known as coronary angioplasty and stenting. Thrombus aspiration can also be done prior to angioplasty and stenting if there is a large amount of clots in the coronary artery. Angioplasty and stenting is the most commonly employed method as we have more evidence in favour of that.