Percutaneous coronary interventions in Europe in 2005.
OBJECTIVE
Since 1992, a registry has collected data on trends in interventional cardiology within Europe. This 14th report presents aggregated data on cardiac catheter procedures in 30 European countries in the year 2005.


RESULTS
Questionnaires were distributed yearly to all national societies of cardiology represented in the European Society of Cardiology. The goal was to collect the case numbers of all local institutions and operators. The overall numbers of coronary angiographies continue to increase throughout the European community. For percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures, the same holds true with a marked difference between the nations. In five years the use of drug eluting stents has raised from 57 cases to more than 221,000, representing one third of all stenting procedures. Mortality has remained unchanged but other complications have significantly decreased over years. From the noncoronary procedures, closure of the patent foramen ovale has shown almost doubled in the past five years.


CONCLUSIONS
Interventional cardiology in Europe is ever expanding, in part by the continuous growth in the eastern European countries. Mortality remains low and other procedure-related complications decrease. Among the noncoronary procedures, percutaneous shunt closures, in particular, PFO closure, increased most during the last decade.
Praz
Laurent
L
Cardiology, Swiss Cardiovascular Center Bern, University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland.
Cook
Stéphane
S
Meier
Bernhard
B