title: Percutaneous intervention of unprotected left main coronary artery.
abstract: Successful percutaneous intervention of unprotected left main coronary artery (LMCA) in lieu of surgical revascularization represents the next wave of challenges that the field of interventional cardiology will try to overcome. Significant LMCA stenosis, commonly secondary to atherosclerosis, is seen in about 4-10% of cases presenting to the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Currently, the vast majority of these patients undergo surgical revascularization unless there are prohibitive reasons for surgical revascularization. Several challenges of percutaneous revascularization have been overcome with stents, intravascular brachytherapy, and other technical improvements. Yet, several remaining limitations of percutaneous intervention, such as in-stent restenosis, have to be improved further before randomized clinical trials of surgical and percutaneous revascularization of unprotected LMCA disease can be contemplated to establish a new standard of care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: H Mehrdad
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Sadeghi
authors.forename: William W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: O'Neill
authors.forename: Cindy L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Grines
mesh_terms: D001158:Arteries / Q000601:surgery*; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D023921:Coronary Stenosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D009204:Myocardial Revascularization / Q000639:trends; D012307:Risk Factors