[The best in 2000 on coronary angioplasty or the postintervention period].
The year 2000 I The left main coronary and myocardial infarction have fallen. The last obstacles confronting the interventional cardiologist have been overcome with the help of stenting. The interventional cardiologist is now working in a limited, well defined functional space and anatomic territory, of which stenting is the main element. It is now known that the successful treatment of arterial stenosis is not necessarily victory over the lesion. The time of conquest and pioneers is over. We are now confronted with the problem of justification of the act by validation of the method and strategies. This is an era of training, organisation and management of the practice with the elaboration and respect of scientific recommendations. Finally, there are new challenges: that of restenosis, and the progression of atherothrombosis, which have led interventional cardiologists to develop: on the one hand, diagnostic tools assessing the arterial lesion just beyond the opacification of the arterial lumen and, on the other hand, therapeutic techniques superseding a mechanical effect on the stenosis. Thus, we are beginning to see the first preventive and curative biological treatments (brachytherapy, gene therapy, anti-atheromatous chemotherapy), founded on a multidisciplinary approach to atheromatous disease.
Service de cardiologie B, CHU Rangueil, 1, avenue Jean Poulhés, 31403 Toulouse.
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D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D012008:Recurrence