Morphological changes of coronary stenosis after repeated balloon angioplasties: a quantitative angiographic study

Abstract

To study the sequential changes of an atherosclerotic narrowing after repeated balloon dilatation, we reviewed the coronary angiograms of 11 patients who underwent at least 3 percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasties of the same coronary segment for two restenoses. No significant changes in reference and stenosis diameters were found when comparing the three successive stenosis, but lesion length and stenosis area progressively increased. The identification of these morphological changes after repeated angioplasties may be of interest in the management of recurrent restenosis.