In selected patients, placement of an intracoronary stent, as compared with balloon angioplasty, results in an improved rate of procedural success, a lower rate of angiographically detected restenosis, a similar rate of clinical events after six months, and a less frequent need for revascularization of the original coronary lesion.

The complications reported in the first 1500 patients enrolled in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) Registry are analyzed. Data were contributed from 73 centers between September 1977 and April 1981. PTCA was successful in 63% of attempts. Five hundred forty-three in-hospital complications occurred in 314 patients (21%). The most frequent complications were prolonged angina in 121, myocardial infarction (MI) in 72, and coronary occlusion in 70. One hundred thirty-eight patients (9.2%) had major complications (MI, emergency surgery or in-hospital death). One hundred two patients (6.8%) required emergency surgery, usually for coronary dissection or coronary occlusion. Sixteen patients (1.1%) died in-hospital; the mortality rate was 0.85% in patients with one-vessel disease and 1.9% in those with multivessel disease. The mortality rate was significantly higher in patients who had had bypass surgery (p less than 0.001). Nonfatal complications were significantly influenced by the presence of unstable angina (p less than 0.001) and initial lesion severity greater than 90% diameter stenosis (p less than 0.001). This report delineates and assesses the complications encountered with PTCA during its initial 3 1/2-year clinical experience. These results support the relative safety of PTCA as a method of nonsurgical myocardial revascularization in carefully selected patients.

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As compared with CABG, an initial strategy of PTCA did not significantly compromise five-year survival in patients with multivessel disease, although subsequent revascularization was required more often with this strategy. For treated diabetics, five-year survival was significantly better after CABG than after PTCA.

daloid regions are directed toward some integrative level of the brain, probably the hypothalamus, since Bard and Mountcastle (6) have demonstrated that the hypothalamus is a critical center for the integration of emotional display. Furthermore, hypothalamic connections have been established for both the septal and amygdaloid areas. It appears that, in the rat, the septal area may normally act to "dampen" the hypothalamic activity associated with emotional, states, while the amygdala may facilitate this diencephalic center. Most of the work with biological substances in the field of radiation protection has been with proteins, amino acids, animal cells, and their extracts. Studies involving the administration of embryonic cells, viable spleen and bone marrow cells, either in the pre-or postirradiation period, have been voluminous and unequivocally show varying degrees of protection.On the other hand, experience with plant substances and yeasts in particular has been quite limited. It has been demonstrated by Jaraslow et al. (1) that the administration of an autolysed yeast extract to rabbits is capable of protecting the postirradiation response to certain immunologic stimuli. Hollaender and Doudney (2) have demonstrated that irradiated Escherichia coli grown aerobically in nutrient broth recover from x-ray effects to a considerable degree if they are plated after irradiation on agar containing yeast extract. In studies designed to evaluate the role of properdin daloid regions are directed toward some integrative level of the brain, probably the hypothalamus, since Bard and Mountcastle (6) have demonstrated that the hypothalamus is a critical center for the integration of emotional display. Furthermore, hypothalamic connections have been established for both the septal and amygdaloid areas. It appears that, in the rat, the septal area may normally act to "dampen" the hypothalamic activity associated with emotional, states, while the amygdala may facilitate this diencephalic center.