|
|
|
|
|
Andreas GruentzigAndreas R. Gruentzig, 1939-1985, was the Swiss radiologist who first developed successful angioplasty for expanding lumens of narrowed arteries. His first, successful, angioplasty treatment on a human was performed in 1977, in Zurich, Switzerland. He expanded a short, about 3 mm, non-branching section of the LAD (Left Anterior Descending) artery (the front branch of the left coronary artery) which supplies the front wall and tip of the heart, aee coronary circulation, which had a high grade stenosis, about 80%, of the lumen. The immediate results of this treatment, despite using only a carefully kitchen built catheter (crude by current standards), was quite good. The patient became and remained angina free after this treatment. This initial patient's result was electively rechecked, by angiography performed by Dr. Gruentzig, in my presence, at the University of Alabama at Emory, on the 10 year anniversary of the initial treatment. The LAD narrowing, after this 10 year timespan, remained almost perfectly expanded. There was minimal residual narrowing, probably less than 10%, as seen in similar angle and multiple different views comparing with photographs of the original, 10 year earlier, before and after results. The excellent results of this initial and subsequent patients were critical to the rapid development and growing acceptance of the angioplasty treatment option. Dr. Gruentzig early recognized multiple important issues: (a) the treatment would not be readily accepted by most physicians, especially bypass surgeons, (b) it could easily lead to bad outcomes without great care in selection of which patients/lesions to treat and of the treating physicians and (c) the importance of carefully teaching the technique and its potential difficulties and pitfalls to other physicians, so as to proactively reduce the occurrence of poor results. These understanding and efforts on his part are widely recognized in cardiology for being of fundamental importance to the ultimate success of the technique. By about 1990, lumen stenosis of the coronary arteries was more commonly treated by the angioplasty technique than by coronary artery bypass surgery. This treatment approach is now referred to as POBA (plain old balloon angioplasty). In the 1990s, further major improvements, both immediate and especially long term became possible with better understanding of disease as a result of clinical research trials using IVUS and the development of stents to mechanically support POBA results. External links Andreas Gruentzig* Andreas Gruentzig and Angioplasty See: Angioplasty Greuntzig,Andreas Greuntzig,Andreas Gruentzig,Andreas Greuntzig,Andreas
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|