Angiographic changes thirty minutes following percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty

In order to ascertain whether coronary angiography performed immediately after the completion of successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) can be used as an index of the final outcome of the procedure, angiography was repeated thirty minutes post PTCA in twenty consecutive patients undergoing elective PTCA. Comparison of the pre PTCA, immediate post PTCA and thirty minutes post PTCA angiograms showed that the initial angiographic success of 77.8% improvement in lumen diameter from pre PTCA to immediate post PTCA was reduced by 16.2% to 61.6% thirty minutes later. We conclude that angiographic changes continue to occur in the immediate post PTCA period and that the immediate post PTCA angiogram may not represent the true outcome of the procedure.