Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease — also called coronary vascular, arteriosclerotic and ischemic heart disease — remains the leading cause of death in the United States. The disease is caused by arteriosclerosis or "hardening of the arteries," which interferes with the normal flow of blood to the heart. It affects the arteries that surround and supply blood to the heart, causing more than a half million deaths a year.

When the heart doesn't receive enough blood, symptoms may include pain or pressure in the chest, arm or jaw. This is a warning sign that your heart is having difficulty. If left untreated, it can result in a heart attack.

The UCSF Heart and Vascular Center treats coronary artery disease (CAD) and the underlying causes. Treatments may include lifestyle changes, medication, procedures requiring only tiny incisions and more sophisticated procedures such as coronary bypass surgery and heart transplantation.

To ensure the highest quality of care, we monitor and measure the treatments our patients receive and evaluate our performance against our own rigorous standards as well as industry benchmarks.

For example, UCSF leads the nation for the speed that heart attack patients are treated in the Emergency Department with balloon angioplasty to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels of the heart. Patients are treated by interventional cardiologists in less than an hour, considerably faster than the 90-minute benchmark of the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR)

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Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Medical Center.
Last updated December 18, 2008