http://www.or-live.com/duluthclinic/2039 St. Mary's Duluth Clinic Heart Center in Duluth, MN, plans to broadcast a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), also called a coronary angioplasty, live on the Internet. The webcast is slated for Tuesday, December 18, 2007, at 6:30 p.m. The public will be able to watch doctors use a minimally invasive procedure to relieve a blocked artery in the heart. A member of the interventional cardiology team at the Heart Center will perform the live procedure. At the same time, two of their colleagues, interventional cardiologists Michael Lucca, MD, and Kathleen Braddy, MD, FACC, will help to explain the surgery and answer questions as they are e-mailed by viewers. Computer users must have high-speed Internet service, and for the first time, our live surgical webcast will be available to people who have Windows Media Player on their computers. The interventional cardiology team at St. Mary's Duluth Clinic Heart Center includes Lisa Abrahams, MD, Kathleen Braddy, MD, FACC, Albert Deibele, MD, Wilson Ginete, MD, Nancy Hassinger, MD and Michael Lucca, MD. Dr. Albert Deibele says he hopes the live webcast will help to educate patients about a heart procedure that brings many people to the hospital. "It's one of the most common surgical procedures in the United States, with one million people in the U.S. having this every year," he explains. At St. Mary's cardiac catheterization lab, specially trained cardiologists perform about 1,600 PCIs every year. Dr. Deibele says higher volumes like this lead to better outcomes for patients. "We provide excellent, consistent cardiac care," he notes. "When you come to the Heart Center, we can replicate this on a daily basis for every patient." PCI refers to a procedure where a cardiologist threads a thin, flexible tube called a catheter into an artery in the patients'groin. The physician gently guides the catheter through the blood vessels to the heart. A special fluid is injected thro...