An Early Calling to Cardiology
Dr. Jose Perez’s lifelong interest in cardiology took root in his teenage years when, as a high school student in San Antonio, he had the unusual opportunity to work with cardiologists at Brooks Air Force Base in the Aerospace School of Medicine. Cardiology soon became his consuming passion and calling in life. Today, Dr. Perez is particularly interested in the ever-evolving field of interventional cardiology. Balloon angioplasty and stents are two of the devices used to improve the health of patients, and he closely follows all the continued refinements and improvements being made to these and other devices. In addition to treating blockages of coronary arteries, Dr. Perez also utilizes balloons and stents to open blocked arteries and improve circulation to the legs, kidneys, carotids and other peripheral arteries. Already board certified in cardiovascular disease, Dr. Perez obtained further certification in the interventional cardiology subspecialty in the first year it was available (1999).

New Therapies Offer New Hope
For Dr. Perez, the most exciting aspect of interventional cardiology is the number of therapies available to help patients. Improvements to balloons and stents have made them smaller and easier to work with. This means that they can be used to treat patients who would have certainly needed bypass surgery in the past. A promising new area of treatment involves using radiation therapy inside the artery to help prevent future blockage from occurring again in places where balloons and stents are being used. This reblockage can come from regrowth of tissue in the artery where the balloon or stent was placed. The use of a radioactive catheter can prevent that regrowth from occurring and can help make the positive benefits of the other interventional therapies last even longer.

By avoiding the need for bypass surgery, therapeutic interventions such as balloons and stents usually result in a shorter hospital stay and less discomfort for the patient. Often, the patient is able to return home on the same day the intervention is performed. There are, however, limitations to intervention therapy. Some patients, especially those with multivessel disease, may still need bypass surgery. Recent refinements to balloons and stents, though, with the addition of radiation therapy, can often help patients go longer before needing bypass surgery. This is an important advancement because the longer bypass surgery can be put off, the better the patient generally will do.

Prevention is the Best Medicine
Despite the promise and the hope for improved quality of life that these therapies provide, Dr. Perez cautions his patients that a successful intervention does not mean that they are healed. “In addition to all these high-tech things we do, it is still just as important to modify all the risk factors. So, the smoking, the high fat diet, controlling diabetes and controlling weight—all those things are just as important as all the things that we do.” Atherosclerosis is generally an ongoing, chronic process. It demands very close attention and follow-up. Future treatment will usually be necessary, whether it is for the same blockage area or a new one, but modifying your risk factors can have a significant effect on the progression of atherosclerosis and the eventual recurrence of blockages.