Current PTCA practice and clinical outcomes in The Netherlands: the real world in the pre-drug-eluting stent era

Aims To document the practice of interventional cardiology and the clinical restenosis rate, as well as the risk factors for clinical restenosis in an unselected population of patients in daily practice and to provide a perspective for the need of new devices such as drug-eluting stents. Methods and results A total of 3177 consecutive patients, who underwent successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in the Netherlands, were included. Patients with acute myocardial infarction were excluded. The pre-defined end-point of clinical restenosis was defined as cardiac death, myo... Mehr ...