Endovascular treatment: the role of the radiologist

A fast search on the PubMed site in September 29, 2010 with the words “Cardiovascular imaging”, covering a ten-year period, revealed 12,560 articles. By limiting the search to 2010 alone, 1,489 scientific articles were found. With these surprising figures, one can conclude that this is the greatest advance in developments in the field of cardiovascular imaging ever achieved in medicine. This increasing interest is based on three factors as follows: a) major companies invest in this field placing their bets on the expectations that technological success will yield incalculable profits; b) research laboratories seek to improve technical procedures, endoprosthesis materials and patients’ prognosis in the process of validating clinical studies; and c) physicians, clinics and hospitals, whether public or private, that must understand the struggle between profit and “reality”. We could take advantage of the present editorial to describe the different aspects of such developments, however it will only be focused on the radiologist’s role. In 2003, Mavroforou et al. highlighted the relevance of good practice in interventional radiology, based on compliance with the legislation and on the discussion of all the aspects with the patients and their families. Thus, those practicing non-invasive radiology, besides the patient himself, will face constant interference of the assisting physician in the practice, which will pose dilemma situations between common sense and medical ethics. The radiologist must dedicate himself to deeply understand the physiology and pathology of every disease, but currently the control of the effects of the human interference in this process is fundamental. The attempt to change the natural course of a vascular disease with interventional radiology may be successful or not. Thus, those who qualify to investigate cardiovascular diseases must understand the relevant role of noninvasive imag-