[Relationship between x-ray morphology of atherosclerotic plaques and incidence of the development of restenosis after transluminal balloon coronary angioplasty].

41 patients (pts) underwent repeat coronary angiography 6-8 months after successful PTCA. The overall restenosis rate was 48.7% (20 of 41 pts). Restenosis occurred in 8 of 24 (33%) pts with non-complicated lesion morphology (NLM) and in 12 of 17 (70.5%) pts with complicated lesion (CLM) morphology (p = 0.02). When clinical manifestation of ischemic heart disease was taken into consideration restenosis was found in 14 of 22 (63.6%) pts with unstable angina in that 5 of 10 (50%) had NLM and 9 of 12 (75%) had CLM. In pts with stable angina restenosis was present in 6 of 19 (31.6%) pts in that 3 of 14 (21.9%) had NLM and 3 of 5 (60%) had CLM. The p value for restenosis in pts with stable and unstable angina was p = 0.04. Thus obtained data suggest that complicated lesion morphology is associated with a higher risk of restenosis than non-complicated lesion morphology. It also seems that coronary stenosis morphology determines the development of restenosis regardless of the clinical manifestation of ischemic heart disease.