Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), usually simply called angioplasty, involved opening the blocked artery. A typical angioplasty procedure involves the following steps:

• The cardiologist threads a narrow catheter (a tube) containing a fiber optic camera directly to the blocked vessel.
• The physician opens the blocked vessel using balloon angioplasty , in which the surgeon passes a tiny deflated balloon through the catheter to the vessel.
• The balloon is inflated to compress the plaque against the walls of the artery, flattening it out so that blood can once again flow through the blood vessel freely.
• In order to keep the artery open afterwards, surgeons now commonly employ a device called a coronary stent , which is an expandable metal mesh tube that is implanted during angioplasty at the site of the blockage.
• Once in place, the stent pushes against the wall of the artery to keep it open. (A number of studies are reporting fewer future heart attacks and restenosis in patients who receive stents compared with those who had angioplasty alone.)