Conclusions In today's health care environment, decisions about medical interventions need to reflect measures of cost as well as clinical benefit. While it is clear that PTCA is significantly more expensive than medical therapy alone, analyses incorporating quality of life considerations suggest that angioplasty techniques that have been shown to improve clinical outcomes are, for the most par...

OBJECTIVE To compare patient selection and outcome of coronary angioplasty procedures before and after the widespread availability and use of stents. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Group 1 consisted of 252 consecutive patients and group 2 comprised 389 patients who underwent angioplasty between April 1993 and March 1994, and April 1995 and March 1996, respectively, in a tertiary cardiothoracic centre. ...

BACKGROUND Randomized studies have shown that the use of coronary-artery stenting as the initial treatment for coronary stenosis is associated with a lower risk of restenosis than is standard coronary angioplasty. We prospectively investigated the efficacy of these two approaches in selected patients with isolated stenosis of the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery. METHODS A to...

AIMS Restenosis after percutaneous coronary angioplasty remains an important limitation of this procedure. This study evaluates whether elevated total plasma homocysteine levels contribute to the development of restenosis after coronary angioplasty. METHODS AND RESULTS Two hundred and five patients were recruited after successful angioplasty of at least one coronary stenosis (> or =50%). End-...

OBJECTIVE To assess the clinical applicability, efficacy, and safety of coronary angiography and angioplasty via a transradial approach in local Chinese patients. DESIGN Prospective case series. SETTING Regional hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS All patients undergoing coronary angiography and coronary angioplasty between 1 January and 30 June 2004. INTERVENTIONS Transradial coronary angiog...

Although the protection with filter-based devices during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a saphenous vein graft (SVG) reduces major adverse cardiac events, a large number of patients undergoing SVG PCI still experience these events. New methods must be used in order to reduce this incidence. Novel local plaque-trapping stents have been developed and show promise in pilot human testi...

INTRODUCTION Coronary angioplasty with stenting has revolutionized the treatment of coronary artery disease. This article describes the history of coronary angioplasty and stenting, reviews the contemporary stents and recommendations and highlights the on-going work and potential future directions. SOURCES OF DATA This review examined the data on coronary stents available in PubMed. AREAS O...

Background: Hypertension induces cardiac hypertrophy. Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of hypertension induced cardiac hypertrophy. Exercise and Quercetin (as activators of Sirtuins) reduce oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) with Quercetin supplement on oxidative stress and level of concent...

Nineteen of 69 patients undergoing coronary angioplasty required immediate coronary surgery after the procedure. Six of these operations were planned as a result of angioplasty that failed without producing any complication. The remaining 13 cases were operated upon because complications occurred during angioplasty. These were coronary artery dissection in four, occlusion in five, continuing se...