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Cheney Undergoes Angioplasty for Artery Blockage
US Vice President Dick Cheney, who has had four heart attacks since 1978, underwent an angioplasty Monday for a partially blocked artery after suffering mild episodes of chest pains for three days.
Doctors at George Washington Medical Center said it did not appear that Cheney, 60, had sustained a heart attack.
Cheney checked himself into the hospital Monday afternoon for his second cardiac catheterization procedure in four months after having two brief, mild episodes of chest discomfort.
Jonathan Reiner, one of Cheney's physicians, said Cheney suffered a mild, brief episodes of chest discomfort Saturday -- three to five minutes -- after exercising at his residence. He had the pains again Sunday, and then twice on Monday, Reiner said.
Doctors performed a balloon angioplasty procedure in which a tube was inserted in the upper leg and into the afflicted artery. A balloon was inflated to clear the blockage, and a mesh pipe was inserted to hold the artery open. The procedure took barely an hour to do.
In November last year, Cheney, 60, suffered a heart attack but quickly resumed a full schedule after an operation to fix a blocked artery.
One of his heart arteries was 90 percent blocked, so doctors implanted a wire scaffolding-like device to push away the blockage and prop open the artery walls.
It was Cheney's fourth heart attack since he was 37. In 1988, he had quadruple bypass surgery to clear clogged arteries.
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