Angioplasty 1964 – Treating Blocked and Narrowed Blood Vessels

Angioplasty is a medical procedure to widen blood vessels that may be blocked or narrowed by atherosclerosis, a condition in which the arterial wall thickens as fatty substances such as cholesterol and calcium accumulate. 

A specialist passes a deflated balloon over a guidewire into the narrowed vessel and inflates it. This crushes some of the fatty deposits and opens the vessel to improve blood flow. The balloon is then deflated and withdrawn. 

Today, after angioplasty, stents (such as metal tubes) are often placed to prevent the vessel from narrowing again. Drug-coated stents can suppress harmful tissue growth and reduce the inflammatory response. Patients with stents generally take blood-thinning medicines to reduce clotting inside the stented vessel.

• Coronary angioplasty (CA, also known as percutaneous coronary intervention) involves widening the coronary arteries, the vessels supplying oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle. 
• Renal artery angioplasty refers to treatment of narrowed renal arteries that can cause high blood pressure and impaired kidney function. 
• Angioplasty is also used in the carotid arteries of the neck, cerebral arteries in the brain and other vessels throughout the body.
• Peripheral angioplasty generally means widening vessels other than the coronary arteries (for example, in the legs).

The first angioplasty procedures in history:

• In 1964, the American radiologists Charles Dotter and Melvin Judkins used balloon angioplasty to treat atherosclerotic disease in a leg artery. 
• In 1977, the German cardiologist Andreas Grüntzig successfully performed balloon angioplasty on coronary arteries. 
• In 1986, Dotter and his colleagues used expandable stent structures in coronary arteries.

Although CA has been shown to reduce chest pain (angina) and improve quality of life, epidemiological studies continue to investigate how much it reduces mortality in various subgroups and in nonacute heart disease. Coronary artery bypass grafting, which bypasses narrowed arteries by connecting other vessels, may actually be more effective than CA at reducing deaths from heart attacks.

About the Article Image: An illustration of a stent inside a vessel.

Historical Figures Mentioned in the Article: Charles Theodore Dotter (1920–1985), Melvin P. Judkins (1922– 1985), Andreas Roland Grüntzig (1939–1985)

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