BACKGROUND The Cutting Balloon is a novel dilatation catheter for coronary angioplasty (InterVentional Technologies Inc). It produces longitudinal, microsurgical incisions in the vessel wall before the actual dilatation. It is assumed that these controlled surgical incisions relieve hoop stress and reduce vessel wall injury and eventually restenosis. However, no clinical indicator to support th...

AIMS Angioplasty of lesions in small coronary arteries remains a significant problem because of the increased risk of restenosis. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of elective coronary stent placement and optimal balloon angioplasty in small vessel disease. METHODS One hundred and twenty patients with lesions in small coronary arteries (de novo, non-ostial lesion and reference...

BACKGROUND Traditionally, a radial or brachial arterial approach is unadvisable in hemodialysis patients. Consequently, coronary angiography or angioplasty is usually performed via a femoral artery approach in these patients, who carry a higher risk of vascular access complications. In hemodialysis patients, arteriovenous grafts (AVG) are created for repeated punctures; however, the feasibility...

introduction: percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (ptca) is an effective method for revascularizing of stenotic coronary vessels. lack of response to this treatment, either in symptomatic or asymptomatic patients, is usually due to incomplete revascularization, restenosis, and/or irreversibility of myocardial perfusion. introduction of a noninvasive method with high predictive value ...

L eft main (LM) coronary artery stenoses have conventionally been precluded from percutaneous coronary angioplasty because of the prohibitive risk of irreversible hemodynamic collapse after acute closure of the artery, and a relatively high risk of late sudden death. l When protected by left anterior descending and circumflex coronary artery bypass grafts, angioplasty of the LM coronary artery ...

BACKGROUND Restenosis remains the major limitation of coronary angioplasty. Coronary stents have reduced the incidence of restenosis in selected patients with relatively large vessels. No strategies to date have demonstrated a beneficial effect in vessels < 3.0 mm in diameter. We have shown in the MultiVitamins and Probucol (MVP) Trial that probucol, a potent antioxidant, reduces restenosis aft...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical and angiographic outcome in patients with in-stent restenosis in small coronary arteries and repeat target lesion revascularisation. DESIGN Patients with in-stent restenosis in coronary arteries < or = 2.85 mm were eligible for the study and underwent target lesion revascularisation. Clinical and angiographic variables were assessed during a six month follow...

Despite the increasing use of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and intracoronary stent placement for the treatment of obstructive coronary artery disease, a large subset of coronary lesions cannot be adequately treated with balloon angioplasty and/or intracoronary stenting alone. Such lesions are often heavily calcified or fibrotic and undilatable with the present balloon technolo...

Patient 1 Baseline 0.68 0 16.93 0 1.12 2.88 B1 0.34 1.22 71.88 0 13.90 56.60 Patient 2 Baseline 1.41 17.03 149.76 0 3.75 −12.44 B1 1.22 15.37 159.38 0 5.22 −17.08 Patient 3 Baseline 0.16 0 94.13 60.46 1.36 23.96 B1 0.13 0 101.99 37.13 13.61 48.75 Patient 4 Baseline 3.80 2.87 32.84 51.58 3.56 19.86 B1 1.14 8.10 103.84 12.73 16.10 50.11 Intracoronary electrocardiographic deflections during transm...

Objectives. This study sought to evaluate, in a prospective and randomized trial, the relative eflicacies of three possible therapeutic strategies for patients with a single severe proximal stenosis of the left anterior descending coronary artery and stable angina. Background. Although percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and coronary artery bypass surgery are often performed in patie...