[Catheter dilatation of coronary artery stenosis. 2 years' experience]

We report our experiences with the first 40 patients treated by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) over the past two years. The technique was successful in 25 patients (63%) with 28 coronary stenoses, reducing the degree of stenosis from a mean of 81 to 25% (p less than 0.001) and the coronary pressure gradient from 70 to 26 mm Hg (p less than 0.001). Because of reduction of coronary blood flow with evolving myocardial infarction an emergency aortocoronary bypass surgery was necessary in two patients (5%). An additional patient suffered a myocardial infarction (2.5%). Within a follow-up observation of 6 months, restenoses occurred in 7 patients (33%); 5 of them were treated with bypass surgery and one was redilated successfully. Our first experiences with PTCA are similar to the results of other institutions.