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SIRwebsite uploaded a new video
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Society of Interventional Radiology
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SIRwebsite favorited a video
(6 months ago)

Free Health Screenings Help Aging Americans Identify Red Flag for Future Heart Attack and Stroke
Interventional Radiologists offer free screenings f...
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Free Health Screenings Help Aging Americans Identify Red Flag for Future Heart Attack and Stroke
Interventional Radiologists offer free screenings for peripheral arterial disease in September during Peripheral Arterial Disease Awareness Month
Symptoms that are typically dismissed as signs of getting older, such as pain in the legs while walking that subsides at rest, numbness and tingling in the lower legs and feet, coldness in the lower legs and feet, and ulcers or sores on the legs or feet that don't heal, may be warning signs of something much more serious, peripheral arterial disease (PAD). PAD is a common condition affecting 12-20 percent of Americans age 65 and older and is a marker for heart attack and stroke. It develops mostly as a result of atherosclerosis, or "hardening of the arteries," which occurs when cholesterol and scar tissue build up, forming a substance called plaque that narrows and clogs the arteries and slows blood flow to the legs. Just like clogged arteries in the heart, clogged arteries in the legs mean you are at risk for a heart attack or stroke. "Early detection and management of peripheral arterial disease, or PAD, can prevent the progression of the disease which can lead to painful walking, gangrene, amputation, heart attack or stroke," states Harvey Wiener, DO, Legs For LifeĀ® Chair.
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SIRwebsite favorited a video
(6 months ago)

Interventional Radiologists, medical doctors who specialize in the vascular system, are urging smokers to quit. Not just because smoking causes ca...
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Interventional Radiologists, medical doctors who specialize in the vascular system, are urging smokers to quit. Not just because smoking causes cancer but because it damages arteries in the legs which can lead to other vascular disease including a heart attack and stroke.
Most smokers are aware of cancer risk, but few know about the effects of smoking on the vascular system. Interventional Radiologists see first hand the damage that smoking causes to the arteries and the accompanying leg pain that many smokers suffer. For some the pain is so severe, it limits their ability to walk.
More than 10 million Americans suffer from a hardening of the arteries in the legs, peripheral vascular disease, PVD.
Diagnosis for PVD is simple. A blood pressure test compares the pressure in the ankle to the pressure in the arm, known as an ankle brachial index test. Treatment includes a supervised exercise program and stopping smoking. Some also need medication or angioplasty in the leg to reopen the artery and improve blood flow.
Interventional radiologists are board-certified vascular specialists who offer minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive, targeted treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-rays, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, usually in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease nonsurgically. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral vascular disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine.
You can find out more information about treatment and find an interventional radiologist in your area at www.SIRweb.org
Produced for the Society of Interventional Radiology
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SIRwebsite favorited a video
(6 months ago)

Margo DeSantis used to cringe every time she would put on her tennis skirt, wishing she could hide the varicose veins on her leg. But it wasn't wo...
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Margo DeSantis used to cringe every time she would put on her tennis skirt, wishing she could hide the varicose veins on her leg. But it wasn't worth it to her to undergo surgery that would have involved incisions every two inches up and down her leg to rip the vein out and the scarring that would result.
It was ten years before she learned that interventional radiologists perform a nonsurgical procedure that's done in a doctor's office, takes an hour or less and involves incisions that are smaller than a pencil point.
DeSantis is not alone. Many of the 25 million people in the U.S. that suffer from varicose veins (one out of every two adults over 50) are unaware of the nonsurgical option, because most people have never heard of interventional radiologists.
These doctors are board certified vascular specialists who offer minimally invasive, targeted treatments throughout the body. To treat varicose veins, they make a small nick in the skin, then use ultrasound imaging to thread a laser up the vein to seal it, redirecting blood flow to healthy veins.
Patients can return to normal activities almost immediately. As DeSantis says "there is nothing that I can't wear anymore."
You can read more about the treatment and find an interventional radiologist in your area at www.SIRweb.org
Produced for Society of Interventional Radiology
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SIRwebsite favorited a video
(6 months ago)

New treatment for patients with small and localized kidney cancer
Imagine finding out that you have kidney cancer and that you'll need 6 hours of su...
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New treatment for patients with small and localized kidney cancer
Imagine finding out that you have kidney cancer and that you'll need 6 hours of surgery with up to 2 months recovery to remove the tumor. And, then, shortly before your scheduled surgery, you learn from a friend or the internet that you can be cured with a 90 minute out-patient procedure. That's what happened to this man.
Alan Jacobs learned about a treatment performed by interventional radiologists. Interventional cryoablation is a minimally invasive, outpatient procedure that is relatively painless. Using imaging to pinpoint the tumor, an interventional radiologist guides a probe through the skin to the tumor and then releases gas to freeze it. The freezing process kills the tumor. Patients leave the hospital with only a band-aid and return to normal activity almost immediately.
Interventional Radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments that offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery.
Until now, the only option for patients with kidney cancer was several hours of surgery, a week in the hospital and 4 to 6 weeks of recovery. Patients not eligible for surgery or those with small tumors that have not spread beyond the kidney, now have another option. People who are too sick for surgery, can't have general anesthesia, have borderline kidney function, only one kidney or multiple recurring tumors had no option till now.
Interventional cryoablation is approved by the FDA for soft tissue tumors, like kidney cancer. Even though it is a new treatment, it is offered throughout the United States
More than 32,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with kidney cancer. It is the 8th most common cancer in men and the 10th in women. Typically those with kidney cancer are past the age of 40 and are twice as likely to be men. Other risk factors include smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, long-term dialysis and Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome.
Produced for Society of Interventional Radiology
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