{"id":89,"date":"2012-12-10T18:56:15","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T18:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/angioplasty.org\/patients\/?p=89"},"modified":"2012-12-11T00:16:02","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T00:16:02","slug":"5-questions-patients-need-to-ask","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/2012\/12\/10\/5-questions-patients-need-to-ask-89","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions Patients Need To Ask"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"Ask your Doctor\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ptca.org\/images\/ryan_patient_140sq.jpg\" alt=\"Ask your Doctor\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\" \/>While medical research continually expands the treatment options that doctors can offer heart disease patients, the adoption of new techniques is not universal. Studies show a wide variation in the tests and treatments that heart patients receive, depending on where they live and who their doctors are.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve compiled a list of <a title=\"5 Crucial Questions to Ask Your Cardiologist about New Heart Disease Treatments\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ptca.org\/patientcenter\/0414-five-questions-for-your-doctor-about-new-heart-disease-treatments.html\">Five Crucial Questions to Ask Your Cardiologist about New Heart Disease Treatments<\/a> to help you make sure you get the best care.\u00a0 Here are a few highlights of the topics on that list, which you might not know about yet:<\/p>\n<p>A catheterization technique called the Radial Approach has been developed that is less uncomfortable for patients, and has lower complication rates, than more traditional methods. Although this approach is used in the majority of catheterization procedures in Europe, India, China, and Japan, it&#8217;s currently only being used by 10-15% of the cardiologists in the U.S.\u00a0 Does your doctor use it?<\/p>\n<p>CT Angiography is a high-tech, painless, non-invasive diagnostic imaging test that can rule out heart disease, sparing hundreds of thousands of patients the risk and discomfort of unnecessary invasive testing. CTA is not widely offered and not widely reimbursed yet, but many patients feel it\u2019s worth seeking out.\u00a0 Have you and your doctor considered whether it makes sense for you?<\/p>\n<p>Are you a patient who wants to make sure you are being offered the most current, least invasive tests and treatment choices? Find out for yourself about the latest options, so you&#8217;re prepared to weigh the pros and cons with your doctor, by reading our full list of <a title=\"5 Crucial Questions to Ask Your Cardiologist about New Heart Disease Treatments\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ptca.org\/patientcenter\/0414-five-questions-for-your-doctor-about-new-heart-disease-treatments.html\">Five Crucial Questions to Ask Your Cardiologist about New Heart Disease Treatments.\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While medical research continually expands the treatment options that doctors can offer heart disease patients, the adoption of new techniques is not universal. Studies show a wide variation in the tests and treatments that heart patients receive, depending on where &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/2012\/12\/10\/5-questions-patients-need-to-ask-89\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,9,10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-resource","category-diagnosis-imaging","category-epatients","category-radial-approach","category-treatments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.angioplasty.org\/patients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}