Morphology after Transluminal Angioplasty in Human Beings

PERCUTANEOUS transluminal angioplasty is frequently used in selected patients to decrease stenoses in atherosclerotic peripheral arteries,1 , 2 renal arteries,3 4 5 6 and coronary arteries.7 8 9 There has been much controversy over the mechanism of successful transluminal angioplasty. It was initially postulated that enlargement of the vascular lumen was due to compression of atheromatous plaque.2 However, experiments in animals and autopsy studies in human beings10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 have shown that transluminal angioplasty produces endothelial desquamation and splitting of the atheromatous plaque. Attempts to extrapolate these findings to the mechanism of clinically successful angioplasty have been subjected to the criticism that post-mortem tissue and animal models of atherosclerosis . . .