Answer B : Crazy Charlie, first arterial angioplasty

Charlie Dotter performed the first arterial dilatation in 1964 with stiff coaxial Teflon catheters. He became known as ¨Crazy Charlie¨ because little credit was given to his unconventional, innovative ideas.

Answer A : First PTCA in Acute Myocardial Infarctions

Geoffrey Hartzler expanded the indications of balloon angioplasty. In 1980, he performed the world’s first PTCA for AMI and recommended PTCA as the treatment of choice in AMI.

Answer C : Tassilo Bonzel

In 1986, Tassilo Bonzel invented the monorail system, where the guide wire was coaxial for only the last 10 cm of the balloon catheter. John Simpson invented the steerable system and Bernhard Meier performed the first kissing balloon for bifurcations.

Answer C : Mason Sones

Mason Sones accidentally performed the first coronary arteriography during an aortography. After this incident, he designed a braided catheter with a tapered tip and developed the brachial selective coronary arteriography technique.

Answer C : John Simpson

When John Simpson heard Andreas Grüntzig’s presentation in 1977 at Stanford, John though that Andreas was either going to revolutionize the treatment of coronary artery disease or go to jail. In those days, it just made no sense to take a balloon catheter and put it into a critical vessel, to inflate it and believe that suddenly everything would be okay.

Answer B : Charles Dotter

In 1969, Charles Dotter published a paper about long term patency in popliteal dog arteries, using uncoated coil springs. Of the three coil springs that were implanted, two remained patent at two years. The idea came from Alexis Carrel, but his first experiences in 1912 with permanent intubations in canine aortas were a failure. Hans Wallsten and Ake Senning were involved from the beginning of the first expandable endoprosthesis which would later be implanted in peripheral arteries in 1985 and coronary arteries in 1986.

Answer C : a restenosis

Jacques Puel implanted the world’s first coronary endoprosthesis on March 28, 1986, to treat a restenosis of a proximal LAD. Ulrich Sigwart implanted the first in man endoprosthesis for the treatment of an acute dissection following a PTCA of a proximal LAD on June 12, 1986. Acute myocardial infarction was initially a contraindication for stenting, but became feasible and successful in the 1990s with stent optimization implantation and dual platelet therapy.

Answer A : Julio Palmaz

To avoid risk of dissection and elastic recoil, Julio Palmaz had a hunch that it could potentially be done by placing an intraluminal tubular structure which could then be expanded at one time within the stenotic lesion. He is the inventor of the balloon-expandable stent. Julio Palmaz was working with Richard Schatz who proposed to modify the initial device with a bridge permitting it to be implanted in coronary arteries. Gary Roubin and Cesare Gianturco were able to capitalize on Julio Palmaz’ ‘balloon’ idea to enable for better navigation and expansion of their Cook Gianturco-Roubin stent, which needed a better delivery system. John Simpson was the originator of directional atherectomy in 1985, as the first alternative interventional technique after balloon angioplasty.

Answer C : Marie-Claude Morice

To prevent stent thrombosis observed in about 25 % at the beginning of bare metal stent use, the French study, conducted by Marie-Claude Morice from 1992 to 1995, validated the concept of dual antiplatelet therapy. Edgar Benveniste, a biologist from Lyon involved in this study, personally suggested combining aspirin and ticlopidine to achieve beneficial, synergistic effects to combat platelets responsible for stent thrombosis. Paul Barragan was the first to use ticlopidine alone, with a pre-treatment, for all his balloon angioplasty since 1986 and, later, for all his stent implantations. Raffaele De Caterina was the first to demonstrate in 1991 that the combination of aspirin and ticlopidine was more effective than either of these 2 agents taken separately.

Answer A : bioresorbable stent

Hideo Tamai implanted the first bioresorbable stent in 1998 with the hope of eliminating chronic inflammation caused by the presence of a permanent stent and to permit restoration of normal arterial wall motion after the resorption of this new device. The first drug-eluting stent was implanted in December 1999 by Eduardo Sousa, with the hope of reducing restenosis by reversing the neointimal hyperplasia due to smooth-muscle cell proliferation. Drug-coated balloons were used to treat restenosis of bare metal or drug-eluting stents since 2003.

Answer B : ESC 1992, Barcelona

Andersen presented his animal experiments at ESC 1992 in Barcelona

Answer B : Very sparsely attended

Just friends and a few lecturers

Answer C : Bill O’Neill

Bill O’Neill in an investigator-sponsored IDE

Answer C : Bovine pericardium

Bovine pericardium, then later changed to porcine in current CoreValve systems

Answer A, B, C : All the above