THE German cardiologist credited with 'inventing' PTCA, better known as coronary angioplasty, and 'training' cardiologists!
Andreas Gruentzig has become a medical legend. He was a "pioneer" in the history of interventional cardiology. He is credited with "inventing" balloon angioplasty, better known today as coronary angioplasty or simply angioplasty. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, this procedure was referred to as PTCA, meaning Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty.
Back in the early 1980s, I had the honor to work with Dr. Gruentzig at Emory University Hospital. He referred to me as his "Office Manager" although that was not the position that originally brought me to Emory. I got to know him personally and as a doctor along with his wonderful staff that formed his "nucleus." To have known this remarkable man, for even a short time, has indeed added some of the fondest memories to my life.
Today, Dr. Gruentzig is a bit of a legend. Unfortunately, both he and Margaret Anne Thornton Gruentzig died simultaneously when the Beechcraft Baron he was piloting crashed in Forsyth, Georgia on October 27, 1985.
I'll bet you didn't know this about Dr. Andreas Gruentzig!
Dr. Gruentzig is the doctor who performed an angioplasty on comedian George Carlin in the early 1980s.
Andreas Gruentzig at a glance
Andreas Roland Grüntzig (1939?October 27, 1985) was a German cardiologist who first developed successful balloon angioplasty for expanding lumens of narrowed arteries.
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Andreas Gruentzig: The Interventionalist
Spencer B. King III
Equally appropriate is the selection of Spencer B. King III to write the matching piece on the development of interventional cardiology. Although there are many individuals of acknowledged achievement who had intimate association with Andreas Gruentzig, the founding father of PTCA, in the beginning days of coronary angioplasty, no one had more influence or equal success in recruiting Gruentzig to this country and to his own institution.As he states in the early and quite intriguing pages of his story, King was aware of Gruentzig's dissatisfaction with the constraints placed on him in developing the technique of angioplasty in Zurich, but he also knew that as much as Gruentzig wanted the proper environment in which to devote full time to the further development of the technique, he also wanted an academic professorship.
In response to King's invitation in 1980, Andreas Gruentzig called him from Snowmass, Colorado, where he was participating in Vogel's American College of Cardiology (ACC) course to say he would drop by on his way home to Zurich.
After some intense meetings at Emory University, it appeared that Willis Hurst could most likely be effective in securing the professorship, but there would certainly be visa problems for a foreign-born and foreign-trained physician to immigrate permanently to Georgia in the 1980 era.
At a hastily arranged luncheon with the powers of academe at Emory University scheduled to meet Gruentzig at the notoriously stodgy Piedmont Driving Club, King noticed Griffin Bell, the Attorney General under President Carter, at the next table. With the instincts of an eagle scout, King went over to the Attorney General's table, greeted the man he knew only peripherally and promptly introduced him to Andreas Gruentzig.
This chance encounter lasted just long enough for two southern gentlemen to identify a strategy that most likely would prove successful in meeting the requirements for legal immigration to this country. Add this anecdote to the others so warmly told in his editorial, "Angioplasty from Bench to Bedside to Bench", and you have a picture of "the life and times of Andreas Gruentzig," as told by Spencer King.
More important, to clinch the recruitment in 1980, King had given over the organizational structure, facilities and resources already in place at Emory to mount his own assault on this promising new field.
In Spencer King, Gruentzig found not only a talented and technically skillful operator but also a compleat cardiologist who knew far more about caring for the sick cardiac patient than his own limited training had equipped him for. His new American associate also knew cardiac physiology; understood the benefits, risks and limitations of cardiac surgery; and was, in his own right, highly regarded by the cardiology establishment in this country. It was as much these qualities and the comportment of his friend and contemporary that would modulate the passionate drive of this charismatic but oftentimes impatient investigator as it was Gruentzig's own genius that made for the success that was to make Atlanta, Georgia, the new epicenter for the advancement of angioplasty in the early 1980s.
In rapid fashion the field witnessed the establishment of an angioplasty registry to which all operators in North America would subscribe or have balloon catheter deliveries restricted; the move toward multivessel angioplasty and the use of the procedure in acute myocardial infarction; the development of over the wire catheter systems; and, most important, the development of steerable guide wires that dramatically improved the ability to reach distal segments of the coronary tree.
Before Gruentzig's untimely death in a 1985 plane crash, he and his collaborators had laid out plans for a randomized trial comparing PTCA with CABG at Emory. They also experimented with new devices, such as rotablaters, lasers and even stents, that were to see their formal development later in the decade.
On examining the legacy left by Andreas Gruentzig, we find that it was Spencer King who completed the 10 year follow-up of the 169 patients who underwent angioplasty by Gruentzig in Zurich between 1977 and 1980. In collaboration with Maria Schlumpf, Gruentzig's long-time assistant, he reported a 90% survival rate for those whose initial procedure was successful and that only 23% of these patients underwent bypass surgery for these or progressive lesions elsewhere during the 10-year period of follow-up.
Earlier, King had reported on the 5-year follow-up of a consecutive series of >400 patients who underwent PTCA at Emory after Gruentzig's arrival. --Science Direct.
Some fond memories of Dr. Gruentzig
- Dr. Gruentzig had taken me aside on my first day at Emory to tell me a little more about the "origins" of PTCA for him. In the hallway outside of his office I seem to recall a wall hanging. He had made a statement about using a balloon catheter ... what I HEARD him say was "... in DUCKS." I remember expressing my surprise on him being able to accomplish an angioplasty "...in a duck!" "NO, no," he had corrected me. "...in DOGS." While his English was good, his German accent made "dogs" sound like "ducks."
- The office area for Dr. Gruentzig was not large enough to accomodate his entire staff. At the time that I was there, I shared a "one-person" office with Rose T., Kathy G., and Mary. Also in this room was a huge printer that was covered with a sound hood. We were so cramped that it bothered Dr. Gruentzig. I can remember him pointing out the window behind his desk to the courtyard below that he was going to put a trailer [like Gonzo on the TV series] so that he could have more "office space."
- Dr. Gruentzig's staff were all abuzz when we heard that the comedian George Carlin was coming in for an angioplasty. The two male assistants to Dr. Gruentzig were "budding" comics who were probably the most excited to try their routines on the comedian.
- Nothing seemed to deter Dr. Gruentzig ... even a broken foot. I'm not sure how he broke his foot--whether it was skiing or some other sport--but I remember his wrapped up foot and him walking around. I honestly do not remember seeing any crutches.
- Dr. Gruentzig invited his staff to his house for a pool party where we all had the opportunity to socialize with him and his family.
PTCA at a glance
Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty
Angioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel; typically as a result of atherosclerosis. Tightly folded balloons are passed into the narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed size using water pressures some 75 to 500 times normal blood pressure (6 to 20 atmospheres).
The word is composed of the medical combining forms of the Greek words ??????? aggeîos meaning "vessel" and ??????? plastós meaning "formed" or "moulded". Angioplasty has come to include all manner of vascular interventions typically performed in a minimally invasive or percutaneous method.
PTCA lens
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PTCA -- Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty
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One of the most common non-surgical treatment for opening obstructed coronary arteries is Percutanueous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty aka PTCA. The name itself says a lot about the procedure: * Percutanueous means access to the blood vessel is m...
PTCA medical books
PTCA - An Investigational Tool and a Non-Operative Treatment of Acute Ischemia (Developments in Cardiovascular Medicine)
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PTCA: Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty : a new treatment for coronary artery disease
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Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty
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Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty: The Dotter procedure : a manual for the radiologist
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Transluminal Angioplasty
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History of invasive and interventional cardiology
The history of invasive and interventional cardiology is complex, with multiple groups working independently on similar technologies. While invasive and interventional cardiology is currently closely associated with cardiologists (physicians who treat the diseases of the heart), a great deal of the early research and procedures were performed by radiologists and cardiac surgeons.
What is a Balloon Catheter?
A balloon catheter is a type of "soft" catheter with an inflatable "balloon" at its tip which is used during a catheterization procedure to enlarge a narrow opening or passage within the body. The deflated balloon catheter is positioned, then inflated to perform the necessary procedure, and deflated again in order to be removed.
Some common uses include:
*angioplasty or balloon septostomy, via cardiac catheterization (heart cath)
*tuboplasty via uterine catheterization
What is Percutaneous Coronary Intervention?
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), commonly known as coronary angioplasty or simply angioplasty, is one therapeutic procedure used to treat the stenotic (narrowed) coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary heart disease (CABG is also used). These stenotic segments are due to the build up of cholesterol-laden plaques that form due to atherosclerosis. PCI is usually performed by an interventional cardiologist.
Coronary Angioplasty medical books
A Guide to Coronary Angioplasty and Stenting
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Complications of Coronary Angioplasty (Fundamental and Clinical Cardiology)
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Classic Papers in Coronary Angioplasty
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Supported Complex and High Risk Coronary Angioplasty (Interventional Cardiology)
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What is an Angiogram?
Angiography or arteriography is a medical imaging technique used to visualize the inside, or lumen, of blood vessels and organs of the body, with particular interest in the arteries, veins and the heart chambers. This is traditionally done by injecting a radio-opaque contrast agent into the blood vessel and imaging using X-ray based techniques such as fluoroscopy. The word itself comes from the Greek words angeion, "vessel", and graphein, "to write or record". The film or image of the blood vessels is called an angiograph, or more commonly, an angiogram.
Although the term angiography is strictly defined as based on projectional radiography, the term has been applied to newer vascular imaging techniques such as CT angiography and MR angiography.
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More info on Dr. Gruentzig
- Emory Healthcare: A Legend
- In 1977 the first balloon angioplasty procedure on a coronary artery was performed in Zurich, Switzerland, by Andreas Gruentzig, a German-born physician. Building on the work of physician Charles Dotter, who had performed the first-ever angioplasty procedure in a leg artery over a decade earlier, Dr. Gruentzig began a revolution in the treatment of coronary artery disease.
- Angioplasty From Bench to Bedside to Bench
- A beautiful story about Dr. Gruentzig!!!
From the Andreas Gruentzig Cardiovascular Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.
Correspondence to Spencer B. King III, MD, Andreas Gruentzig Cardiovascular Center, Emory University Hospital, 1364 Clifton Rd, Suite F606, Atlanta, GA 30322.
- PTCA.org aka Angioplasty.org
- A biographical sketch of Dr. Gruentzig along with videos provided by Burt Cohen.
- International Andreas Gruentzig Society
- The Official Journal of the International Andreas Gruentzig Society
- Gruentzig, The Father of Balloon Angioplasty - I Was There!
- Topic: General Cardiology
Interviewee: Bernhard Meier MD, FACC
Interviewer: George A. Beller, MD, MACC
Editor's note: Dr. Bernhard Meier was in the beginning of his residency when he met Dr. Andreas Grutzig in the angiology and radiology department of Zurich University Hospital. After learning Charles Dotter's original procedure using catheter therapy in the peripheral arteries, Dr. Gruentzig developed a new, rigid sausage-shaped balloon catheter, which he manufactured in his kitchen, together with his wife, Michaela, and Maria and Walter Schlumpf 1. What follows is Dr. Meier's behind-the-scenes story of the first coronary angioplasty. - Tribute to a Legend in Invasive/Interventional Cardiology
- Twenty-seven years ago, in Zurich, Switzerland, Dr. Andreas Gruentzig performed the first coronary angioplasty on an awake human patient. In doing so, he forever altered the role of the cardiologist in treating heart and vascular disease.
As part of a special tribute to "Legends in Invasive/Interventional Cardiology," SCAI asked Dr. Gruentzig's colleague and friend Spencer B. King, III, M.D., FSCAI, MACC, to reminisce about the years when he and Dr. Gruentzig collaborated. Here we share some of Dr. King's recollections. - THORNTON et al. v. AMERICAN HOME ASSURANCE COMPANY
- Andreas and Margaret Anne Gruentzig died simultaneously in a plane crash in which Dr. Gruentzig was the pilot and Mrs. Gruentzig was a passenger. While both decedents were insured under an accidental death insurance policy obtained by the Emory University Clinic in which Dr. Gruentzig was a partner, death benefits were paid only for Mrs. Gruentzig since the policy excluded coverage for death while piloting an airplane.
Drop me a line ...
Did you know Dr. Gruentzig? Did you work with him? Did you have an angioplasty performed by him or a doctor who attended one of his seminars?
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- lilkon lilkon Jun 15, 2009 @ 2:15 pm
- Tell me, didn't you say you had angioplasty done while living in Georgia?
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- clouda9 clouda9 Feb 13, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
- What a wonderful story about working with Dr. Gruentzig...thanks for the stories and sharing what this great man did for humanity.
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- health_advisor health_advisor Jul 24, 2008 @ 8:54 pm
- Very informative.
Great lens. Rated it 5 stars.
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- Dr_Joe Dr_Joe Jul 16, 2008 @ 8:42 pm
- Very informative.
Great lens. Rated it 5 stars.
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