Clinical and Angiographic Determinants of Initial Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty Success

Clinical and anatomic determinants of primary success of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty were retrospectively evaluated in 299 pa tients. Successful angioplasty (residual stenosis <50%) was achieved in 350 (94%) of 373 lesions. The success rate in patients chronically treated with aspi rin was higher than that of patients not treated with aspirin (95% versus 86%, P < 0.03). An additional finding was that the success rate in patients referred for coronary, angioplasty because of acute myocardial infarction or postinfarction angina was lower than that of those without these characteristics (89% versus 96%, P < 0.01). No other clinical features studied influenced the outcome of coronary angioplasty. The, angiographic characteristics of the lesions not differ between patients with successful or failed angioplasty except for the de gree of stenosis, prior to the procedure, being lower in patients with successful procedure (92.4 ± 7.6%, versus 97.3, ± 3.1%), P < 0.002). Thus coronary angioplasty can be performed with a high rate of success. Long-term pretreat ment with aspirin may have a beneficial effect.