Because all cardiac catheterizations involve the insertion of foreign objects (i.e., cardiac catheters) into the circulatory system, it should not be surprising that a variety of adverse events (complications) can ensue. These complications range from minor problems with no long-term sequelae (e.g., transient bradycardia during coronary contrast injection) to major problems [e.g., cardiac perfo...

Coronary stents reduce the rates of abrupt closure, emergency coronary artery bypass graft surgery and restenosis, but do not prevent myocardial infarction or death at six months. The financial burden of increased stent use and the difficulty in managing in-stent restenosis have provided the impetus to develop provisional stenting strategies. Patients at low risk for restenosis after balloon an...

Background Heparin needs the plasma protein antithrombin III to function as an inhibitor of thrombin, and local antithrombin III deficiency might therefore limit the antithrombotic effectiveness of heparin during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Methods and Results In the present double-blind study, 615 consecutive patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplast...

Physiopathology of Restenosis Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) has become the treatment of choice for severe cases of coronary artery atherosclerosis, and currently, .1 million PTCA interventions are performed each year worldwide.1 However, despite its overall value in achieving an immediate increase in lumen diameter, PTCA often triggers local arterial renarrowing (resteno...

BACKGROUND Aim of this trial was to compare rotational atherectomy followed by balloon angioplasty (rotablation [ROTA] group) with balloon angioplasty (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty [PTCA] group) alone in patients with diffuse in-stent restenosis. METHODS AND RESULTS The ARTIST study is a multicenter, randomized, prospective European trial with 298 patients with in-stent rest...

BACKGROUND The purpose of the study was to investigate the relation of lipoprotein(a) and serum lipid parameters to restenosis after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and to assess the association of these same biochemical markers to coronary artery disease (CAD) in individuals with angiographically defined normal and diseased coronary arteries. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty-t...

BACKGROUND Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) improve the clinical status of patients with isolated proximal left anterior descending coronary artery stenosis. At 2 years, only additional revascularization was more frequently required after PTCA. METHODS AND RESULTS We monitored 134 patients randomized to PTCA (n=68) or CABG (n=66) ...

Among the first 83 patients treated with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) at our institution, typical variant angina was recognized beforehand in five cases and was discovered within 4 months of PTCA in six others. All patients had a 65-95% proximal left anterior descending coronary artery stenosis and only one had a coronary lesion greater than 50% in other coronary arteri...

Atherosclerosis is one of the most significant underlying problems that can affect patients with cardiovascular disease. In the most serious situations, this condition affects blood supply to the heart or brain, resulting in heart attack, stroke, or sudden cardiac death. In 1977, Andreas Gruentzig performed the first percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), a less invasive method ...

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 sh...