Evaluation of coronary angioplasty with autoperfusion catheter in patients aged 65 years or older

In the period July 1991 - December 1994, 120 consecutive patients underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA); 79 % were males (mean age 70.0 ± 5.4 years) and 21 % females (mean age: 71.0 ± 6.8 years). Patients have been divided into two groups: (i) Group A (67 patients), undergone PTCA with prolonged insufflations (longer than 20 minutes) with autoperfusion catheters (RX perfusion); and (ii) Group B (53 subjects) has been treated without autoperfusion catheters. The results show that maintenance of myocardial perfusion during angioplasty permits to increase the duration of inflations and to reduce the frequency and the extension of myocardial damages, both transmural and subendocardial. Therefore, the use of autoperfusion catheter can be recommended as a method of choice in selected lesions such as proximal traits of the left anterior descending coronary artery and the circumflex, ostial lesions of anterior descending artery, circumflex, of the right coronary artery or in PTCA of high risk in vessels with a diameter larger than 2.5 mm.