The American Heart Association’s 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics paint a grim picture of our nation’s heart health: cardiovascular diseases, with coronary heart disease being the most common type, are the leading cause of death for adults in the United States.
In fact, Americans lose their lives to cardiovascular diseases more often than from cancer and accidents combined – claiming the lives of nearly 2,500 people a day.
To lower the staggering number of fatalities, interventional cardiologists at OhioHealth hospitals are implementing a new treatment that is already improving the lives of those diagnosed with coronary heart disease.
This treatment technology, AGENT drug-coated balloon catheters, was approved by the FDA in March 2024.
OhioHealth
“The AGENT drug-coated balloon has been available technology in Europe for many years. In fact, about 100,000 patients to date have been treated with this technology,” said Dr. Michael Tempelhof, interventional cardiologist and structural cardiologist at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center and OhioHealth Pickerington Methodist Hospital.
In May 2024, several OhioHealth facilities including OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital and OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, were among the first facilities in the country to use AGENT drug-coated balloon catheters to open up the blocked arteries of coronary heart disease patients. Since then, these facilities have treated more than 100 patients with this procedure without any known complications.
However, this treatment isn’t the first course of action for the specialists at this time.
A patient whose condition doesn’t significantly improve after making healthy lifestyle changes will likely be prescribed medications that lower cholesterol levels, prevent blood clots, reduce blood pressure and more.
As the disease progresses, some coronary heart disease patients will need to undergo angioplasty with stenting, which involves opening up the artery and implanting drug-eluting metal stents that release medication to avoid further blockages. The stent then remains in the artery to keep blood flowing.
Most patients will find relief after the stenting, but 1 in 10 patients will have their artery become blocked again, a condition known as restenosis.
“This (stent) is like a mesh. It's not a completely sealed wall and the disease can grow through those stents and then re-narrow that same blockage that we (treated) before,” Dr. Atish Mathur, intervention cardiologist and heart disease specialist at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, says.
This is where the AGENT drug-coated balloon catheters enter the conversation. Historically, restenosis was usually treated through another angioplasty procedure, but when more stents are placed, the risk of complications rises, and it could become blocked again. Other available options are potentially dangerous and invasive, including open heart surgeries and radiation treatments.
“These are patients who have had repeat blockages already with stents, sometimes you see these patients come back fairly routinely, unfortunately, once you start treating this process,” Dr. Kyle Feldmann, interventional cardiologist and director of the cardiac catheterization lab at OhioHealth Marion General Hospital, says. “So, the goal is to keep them from coming back. And so far, in my experience, I have not had a patient that I have treated with this balloon technology come back for repeat intervention.”
The AGENT balloon procedure is less invasive, expanding to open the artery while plastering the medication directly onto the artery walls without leaving any metal stents behind. While drug-eluting stents typically release medication for an estimated 90 days, clinical studies have shown that the AGENT balloon procedure has the potential to reduce heart attack risk and heart disease symptoms for at least two years.
“The agent (coating the balloon) is called Paclitaxel, and historically, it's an interesting agent in that it actually was found in the yew tree, and historically, was used for years to treat cancers,” Tempelhof says.
OhioHealth
Because the procedure doesn’t require stents and is effective and convenient, studies are currently being conducted to determine whether using the AGENT drug-coated balloon as a primary treatment option – instead of reserving it for those with previously placed stents – is viable.
“We are able to treat those patients more efficiently with the AGENT drug-coated balloon, typically can complete the diagnostic images and treatment in a single procedure and can offer the treatment in all of our catheterization labs,” says Dr. Arash Arshi, interventional cardiology at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital.
While these physicians are excited about the new treatment option, they’re hopeful for the dynamic healthcare field's next medical breakthrough, which could arise on any given day and change everything they know about cardiology.
“I think innovation in general just shows that we continue to strive to become better. When we started cardiac catheterization, 30-40 years ago, they started doing treatments for heart blockages, they didn’t even realize, truly why heart blockages were developing or the process of myocardial infarction or heart attack,” Feldmann says. “Nothing is really, truly perfect, and we have to keep evolving to treat the disease process that exists.”
Maisie Fitzmaurice is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.
