Category Archives: Innovators

Andreas Gruentzig: In His Own Words

Andreas R. Gruentzig, MD

Andreas R. Gruentzig, MD

On Tuesday morning the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2013 Conference celebrated the “father of angioplasty,” Dr. Andreas Roland Gruentzig, with the Career Achievement Award. Gruentzig, who died in 1985, was honored with a very moving tribute, which included a video, remembrances from his colleagues, and by the presence of his wife and two daughters, who were flown in from Zurich and Berlin by the TCT to receive the award on his behalf. Continue reading

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Filed under History, Innovators, Interviews, Meetings & Conferences, Video

For Transradial Angioplasty, “Slender and Lean” in the Netherlands

Slender Club Europe 2014: a new initiative of Slender Club Japan

Slender Club Europe 2014: a new initiative of Slender Club Japan

A criticism from some cardiologists of the transradial approach, in which diagnostic angiography and percutaneous interventions (angioplasty and stents) are performed through the radial artery in the wrist, has been that the radial artery is too small to permit successful navigation of the various sheaths, wires and catheters. Of course, it’s been more than two decades since Dr. Ferdinand Kiemeneij successfully opened a blocked coronary artery via the wrist and today, in many parts of the world, half of all procedures are done this way. Continue reading

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Filed under Europe, Global Trends, Innovators, Japan, Meetings & Conferences, Transradial Approach

AIM-RADIAL International Master Class in New York

Dr. Olivier Bertrand

Dr. Olivier Bertrand

For the next three days, scores of interventional cardiologists will be gathering in New York City for the Second Annual AIM-RADIAL Master Class where they will hear talks, engage in roundtable discussions, watch live case demonstrations, and be thoroughly immersed in advanced state-of-the-art techniques, the latest data and the most current evidence-based medicine regarding all aspects of the transradial technique for diagnostic angiography and percutaneous interventions. Continue reading

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Filed under Global Trends, Innovators, Meetings & Conferences, Transradial Approach

Department Store Where Dr. DeBakey Found His Surgical Graft Fabric is Demolished

I was alerted via Twitter today by @David_Dobbs (also retweeted by @matthewherper and @cardiobrief et al) that the Macy’s department store, formerly Foley’s, in Houston, Texas was demolished yesterday.

The building, as Dobbs explains in his blog post, “Slow-Mo Demo of Building Packed With Surgical & Personal History,” has personal significance for him, but also significance for the world of medicine. Foley’s is where Michael DeBakey purchased a bit of Dacron fabric, which he fashioned into an arterial graft to repair an aortic aneurysm, an achievement which gave birth to the wide spectrum of medical devices we have today.

A few years back, I made a documentary, tracing the history of these devices and below is a clip in which Dr. Michael DeBakey tells how his mother was really a critical element in this momentous medical advance.

You should also check out the video of the demolition itself in David Dobbs’ post.

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Filed under History, Innovators, Interviews, Video

Past, Present & Future of Transradial Angioplasty with Dr. Ferdinand Kiemeneij

Dr. Ferdinand KiemeneijOn the occasion of the 20th anniversary of transradial intervention (TRI), I talked with Dr. Ferdinand Kiemeneij, “the father of transradial intervention” who practices interventional cardiology at Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (OLVG), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

We covered a wide range of topics regarding TRI, where angioplasty and stents are placed via the wrist, and we’ve just posted the two-part interview on Angioplasty.Org. Continue reading

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Filed under Cost Effectiveness, Global Trends, History, Innovators, Interviews, Japan, Patient Experience, Stent, Transradial Approach

Training is Key to Adoption of Transradial Wrist Approach to PCI

J. Dawn Abbott, MD

J. Dawn Abbott, MD

An Editor’s perspective piece about the transradial (wrist) approach to angioplasty and stents appears in the current issue of “Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.”

Penned by Associate Editor J. Dawn Abbott, MD, the article, titled “Diffusion of Innovations and Adoption of Transradial Intervention,” explores why it has taken so long (and continues to) for the transradial approach to be adopted widely in the U.S., given that the evidence from clinical trials has been clear, and that the economic and patient comfort benefits are evident. Continue reading

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Filed under Global Trends, Innovators, Transradial Approach

Andreas Gruentzig on “Complications”

Andreas Gruentzig MD, inventor of PTCA

Andreas Gruentzig MD, Inventor of PTCA

The Patient Forum on Angioplasty.Org receives over 40,000 page views a month. And patients who post to the Forum are a very select subset: they are usually patients who have experienced some type of complication.

I’ve called it our “Complaint Dept.”, not to demean or belittle it in any way, but to characterize it for our readers. If you read through some of the topics, you would think that angioplasty is fraught with negatives and the risks outweigh the benefits. And you’d be wrong because the number of complications is the numerator; the denominator is all of the procedures done, currently almost 700,000 PCIs annually in the U.S. alone.

So, complications occur in only a small percentage of cases.

Of course, if you or a loved one is one of those complications, you really don’t care about the percentages; you want help and answers. Continue reading

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Filed under History, Innovators, Interviews, Patients, Video