Interventional nuclear medicine in the prevention of restenosis following angioplasty.
Restenosis is an unsolved clinical and economic limitation of angioplasty. Local irradiation is a new concept to overcome this problem. The magnitude of this health problem becomes apparent when one recognizes that 166132 percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) procedures were performed in Germany in 1999. Each angioplasty has subsequent costs of 6384 DM, which can be reduced to 2161 DM by 50% restenosis reduction due to irradiation [1]. The number of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures is growing by at least 10% per year.
Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Ulm, Germany. joerg.kotzerke@mailbox.tu-dresden.de
Jörg
J
Kotzerke
H
H
Hanke
M
M
Höher
D017130:Angioplasty / Q000009:adverse effects; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000379:methods*; D023903:Coronary Restenosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D011817:Rabbits; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012211:Rhenium / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D011868:Radioisotopes; D012211:Rhenium