Process of Advancing the Area of Interventional Cardiology

Thanks to technology and bright-minded people, the field of cardiology has come a long way over the years. For instance, many medications and drug therapies were discovered and created like Fibrinolytic therapy. Fibrinolytic therapy is a therapy that uses fibrinolytic drugs like tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), streptokinase (SK), and urokinase (UK) to dissolve blood clots, therefore minimizing the risk of having a heart attack. Fibrinolytic therapy has been a major improvement in the treatment of heart attacks, leading to an increase of early survival, less heart failure, less ventricular remodeling, and fewer arrhythmias. 

Streptokinase (SK) was the first drug to be used in myocardial infarction. Researchers have known for some time of SK's potential to dissolve clots. Fibrinolysis induced by the streptokinase drug resulted in the breakdown of fibrin. SK was once used initially for fibrinous pleural exudates, hemothorax, and tuberculous meningitis. Some researchers started using SK in patients with heart attacks, presenting hope that coronary heart disease ought to be “cured.” 

Experimental intracoronary infusion of SK produced conflicting outcomes initially. Hence, the Italian Group for the Study of Streptokinase in Myocardial Infarction (GISSI) trial in 1986 addressed this problem with the aid of recruiting greater than 10,000 patients and proved that SK decreased early mortality in patients with heart attacks. The thrombolytic era was found on an imperative idea that most cases of heart attacks are the result of surprising obstruction of an epicardial coronary artery by intracoronary thrombus superimposed on a ruptured or fissured atherosclerotic plaque. 

The GISSI finds out about validated SK as a wonderful therapeutic method, and therefore constant protocols for its use in heart attacks have been established. SK has been supplanted by tissue plasminogen activator in developed nations, however, SK remains integral to the management of heart attacks in creating nations. The Second International Study of Infarct Survival showed that the addition of aspirin (an antiplatelet drug) led to an increase in saving people with the disease. The perception of all cardiovascular disease and its diagnosis has also changed dramatically since the Seminal Framingham Heart Experiment took place in 1948. 

The seminal Framingham Heart Experiment was one of the first major contributions to the modern understanding of cardiovascular disease. This was the first study to identify hypertension and hypercholesterolemia as risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and it cleared the road for drug-therapy research, the basis for today's therapies. Subsequent adoption of heart disease prevention approaches has significantly reduced age-adjusted rates of cardiac death. Innovation and drug development persisted to shape the subject of cardiology throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. The improvement of coronary arteriography in 1958, coupled with the first use of streptokinase; a fibrinolytic agent that was first used in 1976, varieties the groundwork of cure for acute myocardial infarction today. 

Two landmark trials that were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s dictate how we deal with congestive coronary heart failure currently. As the discipline evolves, researchers are discovering minimally invasive options to high-risk open-heart surgery, that would allow formerly unfit sufferers to endure life-extending processes and advancing the area of interventional cardiology. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death to this day; killing 610,000 people in the United States every year–that's 1 in every 4 deaths. 

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death for both men and women. Coronary heart disease is the most common cardiovascular disease and is one of the most dangerous, killing over 370,000 people annually. The main causes that lead to coronary heart disease and many other heart diseases are obesity, diabetes, physical inactivity, poor diet, smoking and excessive use of alcohol. In the early 1950s, the University of California researcher John Gofman (1918–2007) and his associates identified today’s two ordinary cholesterol types: low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), according to the University of Minnesota. 

He determined that men who developed atherosclerosis generally had elevated ranges of LDL and low levels of HDL. Also in the 1950s, American scientist Ancel Keys (1904–2004) determined in his travels that heart disorder used to be uncommon in some Mediterranean populations where humans consumed a lower-fat diet. He also stated that the Japanese had low-fat diets and low rates of coronary heart sickness as well, leading him to theorize that saturated fat was once a cause of coronary heart disease. These and other developments, which include results from the Framingham Heart Study, led to the first attempts at urging Americans to trade their diets for higher heart health. 

The most prescribed drugs for today’s patients with coronary heart disease are statins. These drugs lower the LDL or “bad cholesterol” in the blood and minimize the risk of heart attacks. Statin drugs mainly benefit people with hypercholesterolemia. Hypercholesterolemia is a genetic disorder that is caused by a defect on chromosome 19. The defect makes the body unable to remove low-density lipoprotein cholesterol from the blood. This results in a high level of bad cholesterol in the blood. Statins are then used to help get rid of the bad cholesterol that the body cannot get rid of naturally. Statins are one of the most important discoveries in the world of medicine. 

The drugs were discovered in 1976 by the Japanese biochemist Akira Endo, who isolated a factor of the fungus Penicillium citrinum which he identified as a competitive inhibitor. Competitive inhibition means that the drug binds to the receptors of the cell to stop the effect of a chemical or compete with it for the cell receptor. Cardiology has helped us learn more about the body than many other branches of medicine. It taught us the circulation of the blood around the body and what organ is responsible for pumping blood through the body. 

The study of cardiology also helped save many lives and that’s by helping us make drugs and therapies that would help people with cardiovascular diseases survive and live for longer periods of time. Today we know more about cardiovascular diseases than ever before and we also know how to reduce the risk of getting it in the first place. However, we still don’t know all about it and we’re a long way from erasing heart diseases from human history. That is why the study of cardiovascular diseases should be of crucial importance. Cardiology is one of the most influential medical fields that contributed to the world of medicine and continues to do so.