Our Dad, 64 years old, male, who recently (about 6 months) quit smoking; has lead a mostly sedantary life, has had previous instances of anginal pain and has been taking aspirin-like drugs for a while now. He does not suffer from excessive high cholesterol. Blood pressure is 140/80 mm of Hg and pulse rate is 60-64 bpm.

In the past few months, he has lost considerable amount of weight, waist size has fallen to 38 from 44 inches and is feeling much light and fit. He has been on a strict diet of vegetables, fruits and lean protein. He has also started taking dietary supplements like omega-3 fish oil.

However, a CT scan done around the third week of January shows major blockage on the right side and considerable blockage on the left side. The report mentions calcification in the RCA, D1 and in the circumflex branch of the LCA. Since the cardiologist he has been seeing till date has recently broken his arm and is not being able to perform angiography right away, we have a few questions for you:

1) Does calcification always imply a completely blocked artery?

2) If there are no symptoms of heart trouble, like chest pain, shortness of breath etc while doing regular everyday exercises, is it still important to get the angiography done as soon as possible, or will it be okay to wait a while, say a month, and then go for it?

3) Is multiple stenting better or worse than a by-pass surgery?

4) How do you rate the possible efficacy of the EECP procedure at this stage?

Any answer or suggestion at all will be extremely helpful as we are not being able to get in touch with a cardiologist till the end of the week.

Thanking you in anticipation.