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Statins are relatively cheap and non-invasive, but must be taken daily for life and can cause muscle pain. Free notes with key terms and 14 questions answered.
Evaluating Cardiovascular Disease Treatments is part of Animal tissues, organs and organ systems in GCSE AQA Higher Biology.
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GCSE AQA Higher
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Statins are relatively cheap and non-invasive, but must be taken daily for life and can cause muscle pain. Free notes with key terms and 14 questions answered.
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Use this lesson to stay inside Animal tissues, organs and organ systems while connecting the detail back to the wider Organisation topic.
Read the core explanations from Evaluating Cardiovascular Disease Treatments before testing yourself from memory.
Your heart beats 100,000 times a day, pumping 7,500 litres of blood. When this system fails, the consequences are life-threatening. Cardiovascular disease kills more people in the UK than any other condition - but we have three main weapons to fight back.
Doctors can prescribe drugs, insert mechanical devices, or replace the entire heart. Each approach has trade-offs between effectiveness, risk, and cost. Understanding these helps you evaluate which treatment suits different patients.
Drug treatments target the root causes of cardiovascular disease. They work by changing how your cardiovascular system functions at the molecular level.
Advantages of drug treatments: Non-invasive (no surgery required), relatively cheap to produce and distribute, can prevent disease progression, and suitable for millions of patients simultaneously.
Disadvantages: Must be taken daily for life, side effects like muscle pain with statins, don't work for everyone due to genetic differences, and can't repair damage that's already occurred.
When drugs aren't enough, doctors turn to mechanical interventions. These physically alter the cardiovascular system to restore normal function.
Stents are tiny mesh tubes inserted into blocked coronary arteries. They're expanded using a balloon catheter, permanently holding the artery open. This restores blood flow to heart muscle that was being starved of oxygen.
Advantages of mechanical devices: Immediate effect (stents restore blood flow instantly), long-lasting (pacemakers work for 10+ years), and highly effective for specific problems like blocked arteries or irregular rhythms.
Disadvantages: Require surgery with infection risks, expensive procedures, can malfunction or move, and only treat specific problems rather than underlying disease.
When the heart is too damaged to repair, replacement becomes the only option. Heart transplants involve removing the diseased heart and replacing it with a healthy donor heart.
Advantages: Completely replaces a failing heart, can restore normal life expectancy, and works for end-stage heart failure when nothing else will.
Disadvantages: Major surgery with high risks, requires lifelong immunosuppressant drugs, shortage of donor hearts means long waiting lists, and very expensive (£100,000+ per operation).
The biggest challenge is tissue rejection. The immune system recognises the new heart as foreign and attacks it. Immunosuppressant drugs prevent this but leave patients vulnerable to infections and cancer.
Worked example: Evaluating Treatment Choice
A 65-year-old patient has severe chest pain. Tests show 90% blockage in two coronary arteries but the heart muscle is still healthy. Evaluate the most appropriate treatment. [6 marks]
Answer: Stents are most appropriate because they directly address blocked arteries with immediate effect and lower risk than transplant.
Evaluation questions ask you to weigh up evidence and reach a conclusion. The command word 'evaluate' means you must consider both sides before making a judgement.
Exam depth extension: In evaluating cardiovascular disease treatments, connect why cardiovascular disease treatment matters to drug treatments - the chemical approach using clear cause-and-effect statements. When you explain biological processes, include what changes, why it changes, and the consequence for cells, organisms, or populations. If calculations appear, show each step, include units, and end with a sentence that interprets the result in biological context.
Common mistakes: Only giving advantages OR disadvantages (not both), making vague statements without examples, and forgetting to give a final conclusion. Remember - evaluation means making a judgement based on evidence.
Published by Revise Right. Use the official specification reference to check the requirements for your course. Content updated: 2026-03-20.
Move to the related lessons or back to the topic page when you need the wider sequence before exam-style practice.
Statins can cause side effects such as muscle pain. They are drugs that reduce cholesterol production in the liver, but they must be taken daily for life and do not work for everyone due to genetic differences.
An artificial pacemaker works for 10+ years. It is an electronic device implanted under the skin that sends electrical impulses to regulate abnormal heart rhythms.
Statins are non-invasive, relatively cheap and can prevent disease progression, but must be taken daily for life, can cause side effects like muscle pain, do not work for everyone due to genetic differences, and cannot repair damage that has already occurred.
A heart transplant is very expensive, costing over £100,000 per operation. It is major surgery with high risks and requires lifelong immunosuppressant drugs, but it can restore normal life expectancy for end-stage heart failure.
Tissue rejection is when the immune system recognises a transplanted heart as foreign and attacks it. Immunosuppressant drugs prevent this, but they leave patients vulnerable to infections and cancer.
An artificial pacemaker is an electronic device implanted under the skin that sends electrical impulses to regulate abnormal heart rhythms. Pacemakers are long-lasting, working for 10+ years, but like other mechanical devices they require surgery with infection risks and can malfunction or move.
A heart transplant completely replaces a failing heart and can restore normal life expectancy, working for end-stage heart failure when nothing else will. However, it is major surgery, needs lifelong immunosuppressant drugs that leave patients vulnerable to infections and cancer, has long waiting lists and costs £100,000+ per operation.
Mechanical devices such as stents and pacemakers have an immediate effect, are long-lasting and are highly effective for specific problems like blocked arteries or irregular rhythms. However, they require surgery with infection risks, are expensive, can malfunction or move, and only treat specific problems rather than underlying disease.
The best cardiovascular treatment matches the specific problem with the lowest risk. For a 90% blockage in two coronary arteries with healthy heart muscle, stents are most appropriate because they open the arteries immediately; statins cannot open existing blockages, and a transplant is only used when the heart muscle is damaged.
The advantages of drug treatments for cardiovascular disease are that they are non-invasive, with no surgery required, relatively cheap to produce and distribute, can prevent disease progression, and are suitable for millions of patients at once.
The disadvantages of drug treatments for cardiovascular disease are that they must be taken daily for life, can have side effects such as muscle pain with statins, do not work for everyone due to genetic differences, and cannot repair damage that has already occurred.
For 90% blockages in coronary arteries with healthy heart muscle, stents are the most appropriate treatment because they open the blocked arteries immediately with lower risk than a transplant. Statins would only prevent further blockage, and a transplant is unnecessary when the heart muscle is healthy.
The three main types of treatment for cardiovascular disease are drugs, such as statins, mechanical devices, such as stents and pacemakers, and heart transplants. Each has trade-offs between effectiveness, risk and cost.
An evaluate question on heart disease treatments needs both advantages and disadvantages of each option, specific examples, and a final judgement based on evidence. Common mistakes are giving only one side, making vague statements and forgetting the conclusion.