Therapeutic choices in the patient with coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction.

In this issue of Circulation, Holmes and colleagues' report the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) results for patients with depressed left ventricular function. The report describes the experience of 15 collaborating centers that enrolled patients in the registry during a 9-month period in 1985 and 1986. The clinical investigators should be congratulated for providing a snapshot of their clinical experience. The report contributes some important pieces to the clinician's puzzle of how to manage patients with coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction. A number of pieces of the puzzle, however, remain missing.