More that 25 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.  This year alone, an estimated 1,300,000 procedures such as balloon angioplasty and stents will be performed to reopen their arteries. 

Redmond Regional Medical Center is pleased to announce the addition of a new service for Angioplasty patients, called "Brachytherapy".  This new procedure combines administering radioactive 'seeds' into a patient's heart to prevent "restenosis".  Restenosis occurs when an artery opened by angioplasty, closes back up with scar tissue.  Clinical testing shows that radiation will kill the rapidly dividing cells that form scar tissue and without that growth, stent-braced arteries will keep flowing.  The Beta-Cath system is used in conjunction with a typical balloon angioplasty procedure or with angioplasty that includes a new stent placement.  During angioplasty, a balloon catheter is guided into the patient's coronary artery and positioned at the site of the blockage.  Once the catheter is in place, the balloon is expanded to open the artery and restore blood flow. 

Immediately after the balloon procedure, the Beta-Cath System is used to temporarily deliver beta radiation (vascular brachytherapy) to the angioplasty site.  The whole body radiation exposure to the patient in the procedure is less thatn one percent of that which is received during the x-ray portion of the angioplasty procedure.  The beta radiation only treats the angioplasty site, and does not travel elsewhere in the body.  Vascular brachytherapy appears to inhibit cell growth and is intended to prevent restenosis of the artery at the treatment site.

Vascular brachytherapy is accomplished with the Beta-Cath System's unique closed-end catheter design, which uses hydraulic force to deliver the radiation sources to the angioplasty site.  The sources, which contain beta radiation, never come in contact with the patient's tissue or blood, and remain at the treatment site for less than five minutes before being withdrawn.  The procedure adds less than ten minutes to the total angioplasty time and is believed to pose no additional risks to the patient.

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