When arteries of the heart become narrow or blocked, it can be life threatening.

Stent patient Sharon Kay Stinson says "I am an avid clogger and I line dance so I go clogging about 3 times a week."

Sharon tried to ignore a serious warning sign for heart trouble one morning, when she felt an unusual tightness in her chest. "I thought nothing of it and went on to class. And it didn't bother me until about, I was there about a half an hour and another short tightness in my chest."

Sharon eventually heeded the warning and went to the emergency room. That's when she was told she had a blockage in her heart that had to be fixed or she could die. Her doctor recommended having a stent put in.

Cardiologist David Bailey says that, "A stent is really a metal grid. So these are really scaffolds which prop open a blood vessel which has narrowed down because of plaque in the blood vessel."

Deciding if a stent is the best option is determined by certain features including the size of the patient's blocked artery and where the blockage is.

Today, stenting is fairly common; in fact, it now represents 70-90 percent of procedures performed.  Sharon's stent procedure went off without a hitch, and after just 10 days of taking it easy, she was happy to trade her "clogged" artery for "clogging" class. "It was wonderful. I can't tell you how great I feel now that I've had it done."

Researchers don't believe stents have to be permanent, and studies are currently underway to test a dissolvable stent that's made of the same kind of material as certain dissolvable stitches.