oa Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty experience in qatar: an analysis of more than 600 consecutive procedures

The present study describes the indications and results of 636 Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) procedures that were carried out in 596 patients. Of these, 366 (61.4 %) patients had Single Vessel Disease (SVD), 183 (30.7%) had Two Vessel Disease (2VD) and 47 (7.8%) had all Three Vessels Diseased (3VD). Dilatation of a single lesion was carried out in 564 (93.5%) patients. In another 41 (6.5%) patients, more than one vessel was dilated. The patients were predominantly male (562/596,93%) with a mean age of 46 (7.9 years. The indication for angiography was angina in 65.8% and for recent Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) in 34.2%. The number of procedures increased from 106 in 86-89 to 320 in 92-96 (an increase of 280%).

PTCA was carried out in the same session as the angiography in 113/596 (19%). In the remaining 81%, PTCA was planned as an elective procedure with a similar success rate (85% and 87% respectively, p=N.S). Females and Qatari patients had the highest success rates (97.6% and 90.5%) respectively.

The Left Anterior Descending (LAD) was the most frequently tackled vessel (53% of cases), Left Circumflex (LCX) in 20% and Right Coronary Artery (RCA) in 27%. For coronary stenoses, the overall success rate was 89%, being highest in the LAD (89.5%), lowest for LCX (82%) and moderate for RCA (88%). When faced with a total occlusion the overall success rate was 71% and was highest in RCA (84% success) and lowest in LCX (43%) and moderate in LAD (74%). Major complications were rare with only one mortality (1/596, 0.16%) and four emergency CABG is (4/596, 0.7%). Intracoronary stents were used as a bailout device in five patients and to obtain an optimal result in one patient. Stents were technically successful in all but one case.