[Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of the left main coronary artery in acute myocardial infarction].

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty is unusual in acute myocardial infarction after left main coronary artery occlusion. We applied this therapy in two cases. The first, a 54-year-old man, submitted to mechanical reperfusion and left main coronary artery angioplasty 145 minutes after the beginning of the symptoms and coronary artery surgery 12 hours later; the second, a 77-year-old woman, submitted to both procedures but not to surgery. In the first case there was a satisfactory follow-up but in the second, the patient died twelve hours later.