STROKE COMPLICATING PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY REVASCULARIZATION

Percutaneous techniques have become an important method of myocardial revascularization. Although percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty was originally used in healthy patients with focal stenosis of 1 coronary artery, the indications have now expanded to include those with multivessel disease, older patients, and those with acute myocardial infarction (including those in cardiogenic shock), chronic severe impairment of left ventricular function, and obstructed bypass grafts.1 There has been a marked expansion in the indications for percutaneous revascularization and in the array of devices with which a lesion may be treated. Previous reports on complications associated with percutaneous revascularization generally focused on untoward events after standard balloon angioplasty of the instrumented vessel (in particular, abrupt closure).2 Little attention has been given to stroke, which although a well-documented complication of coronary artery bypass grafting3-5 is a rarely reported complication of angioplasty. 2,6 Therefore, we report, for the first time, the incidence, clinical characteristics and outcome of stroke in a large, single-center population undergoing various percutaneous revascularization techniques. © 1993.