A new catheter system for coronary angioplasty.

A new catheter system has been designed for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. An independently movable, flexible-tipped guide wire within the balloon dilation catheter facilitates selection of the involved vessel. This guide wire can be passed slowly and carefully beyond the coronary stenosis, permitting safe advancement of the balloon catheter. After testing in animal and cadaver hearts, this system was used in 53 patients (56 stenoses) with single vessel coronary artery disease, with an overall primary success rate of 64 percent. In the last 41 of these 56 cases, use of a balloon catheter with a smaller deflated diameter increased the success rate to 73 percent. In patients with lesions of the left anterior descending coronary artery, the success rate was 89 percent. Three (6 percent) of the 53 patients had complications during coronary arterial dilation that necessitated emergency coronary arterial bypass graft surgery. There were no procedure-related or late cardiac deaths. During the mean follow-up period of 8 months (range 1 to 21), there were one late death (of noncardiac causes) and no late myocardial infarctions. Clinical status was persistently improved in 31 of the 36 patients who had successful dilation. The remaining five patients experienced restenosis at the angioplasty site and return of angina pectoris within 3 months of dilation. Two of these patients had repeat coronary angioplasty with restoration of asymptomatic status, and three had elective coronary bypass graft surgery.