Cardiology: Increasing the Blood Flow

Of the estimated 25 million Americans who suffer from coronary artery disease, fewer than 10 million have their problem neatly confined to a plug of fatty or chalky material in a single artery —what doctors call "segmental disease." The majority have a diffuse disease involving several artery branches, vastly complicating all efforts to boost blood flow to the oxygen-starved heart muscle. Because there is as yet no proof that medical treatment with diet, drugs, exercise and control of weight and blood pressure does much good, Santa Monica's Dr. James A. Mc-Eachen...