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Treatments for peripheral artery disease include lifestyle changes, anti-clotting medicines, statins to control cholesterol, and medicines to treat high blood pressure. When peripheral artery disease is advanced or does not respond to lifestyle changes and medicines, your doctor may recommend surgery or procedures such as bypass grafting, angioplasty and stent placement, and atherectomy.

Having a stent placed is a minimally invasive procedure, meaning it is not a major surgery. Stents for coronary arteries and carotid arteries are placed in similar ways. A stent graft is placed to treat an aneurysm in a procedure called aortic aneurysm repair. Airway stents are placed in a procedure that helps open airways in the lung. For most stents, you will be given medicine to make you sleep during the procedure. The stent procedure may be planned ahead of time or it may be performed in an emergency situation.

Congenital heart defects happen because the heart does not develop normally while the baby is growing in the womb. Doctors often do not know why congenital heart defects occur. Researchers do know that genetics can sometimes play a role.

Si su médico recomienda la rehabilitación pulmonar, recibirá la atención de un equipo de proveedores de atención médica, que diseñará un plan que se ajuste a sus necesidades basados en la salud de sus pulmones, su edad y otros factores de salud. Una vez que finalice el programa, el equipo evaluará nuevamente la función pulmonar para ver si la respiración ha mejorado.

Long-term exposure to lung irritants—smoke, air pollution, chemical fumes, or dusts—that damage the lungs and the airways usually is the cause of COPD. A rare genetic condition called alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency can also cause the disease.

Breathing involves two phases: breathing in and breathing out. Your lungs deliver oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from your blood in a process called gas exchange. Gas exchange happens in the capillaries surrounding the alveoli, where the oxygen that is breathed in enters the circulatory system and carbon dioxide in the blood is released to the lungs and then breathed out. If you have problems breathing, gas exchange may be impaired, increasing the risk of serious health problems.

Damage to the lung’s air sacs—called alveoli—causes ARDS. Fluid from tiny blood vessels leaks through the damaged walls of the air sacs and collects, limiting the lungs’ normal exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The damage also causes inflammation that leads to the breakdown of surfactant—a liquid that helps keep your air sacs open.

Atherosclerosis is a disease in which plaque builds up inside your arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood to your heart and other parts of your body.

Pneumonia can be very serious and even life-threatening. Vaccines can help prevent some types of pneumonia. Good hygiene (washing your hands often), quitting smoking, and keeping your immune system strong by getting regular physical activity and eating healthy are other ways to lower your risk of getting pneumonia.

At first, COPD may cause no symptoms or only mild symptoms. As the disease worsens, common signs and symptoms include an ongoing cough (with or without mucus), shortness of breath, wheezing or whistling when breathing, and chest tightness.