Long-Term Follow-up after Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty

Abstract

The first 169 patients in whom percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty was performed have now been followed for five to eight years. The procedure was technically successful in 133 patients (79 percent). In the follow-up period, nine of the 133 patients died (five of cardiac disease), and actuarial cardiac survival was 96 percent at six years. All patients were symptomatic before angioplasty, but 67 percent of the 133 who had technically successful procedures were asymptomatic at the last follow-up evaluation. Exercise stress testing, positive in 97 percent before angioplasty, was positive at the last follow-up study in only 10 percent of the patients who had technically successful procedures.