[Transluminal coronary angioplasty. Results of the multicenter study of the Working Group on Functional Cardiovascular Research of the French Society of Cardiology].

A multicentre study instituted by the "Functional Cardiovascular Investigations" working group of the French Cardiac Society assembled 219 cases files of patients who had undergone attempted transluminal angioplasty for coronary artery stenosis according to Gruntzig's protocol, between August 1979 and October 1981. The stenosis was catheterised in 179 cases (81 p. 100) and a good result was obtained in 152 patients (69 p. 100). One or more complications occurred in 25 patients (11 p. 100) including one death, 16 emergency aortocoronary bypass procedures (7,3 p. 100) and 7 myocardial infarctions (3,2 p. 100). Medium term follow-up of these patients showed an incidence of restenosis of between 16 p. 100 (24 patients with angina out of the 152 primary successes) and 32 p. 100 (25 of the 77 patients controlled by coronary angiography). The results of this multicentre trial are compared to those reported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. We conclude that transluminal coronary angioplasty gives a good result which is maintained (in some patients after 2 dilatations) in 60 p. 100 of cases, with, however, a risk which is not negligeable: the indications for this procedure should therefore be restricted.