History Center

History of Angioplasty Timeline

This brief timeline is intended to give an overview of the history of interventional cardiology. More in-depth information can be accessed through the links provided, as well as from the reference sources listed at the bottom of the page.

3000 B.C. — Egyptians perform bladder catheterizations using metal pipes.
400 B.C. — Catheters fashioned from hollow reeds and pipes are used in cadavers to study the function of cardiac valves.
1711 — Hales conducts the first cardiac catheterization of a horse using brass pipes, a glass tube and the trachea of a goose.

1844 — French physiologist Bernard coins the term "cardiac catheterization" and uses catheters to record intracardiac pressures in animals.
1929 — First documented human cardiac catheterization is performed by Dr. Werner Forssmann in Eberswald, Germany. (Click to see video)

1941 — Cournand and Richards employ the cardiac catheter as a diagnostic tool for the first time, utilizing catheter techniques to measure cardiac output.
1956 — Forssmann, Cournand and Richards share the Nobel Prize. Cournand states in his acceptance speech "the cardiac catheter was...the key in the lock."
1958 — The diagnostic coronary angiogram — the key to selective imaging of the heart is discovered by Dr. Mason Sones

1964 — Transluminal Angioplasty, the concept of remodeling the artery, is introduced by Dr. Charles T. Dotter

1967 — Dr. Rene Favaloro conducts first saphenous vein graft (bypass) surgery in Cleveland
1967 — Introduction of the Judkins Technique of coronary angiography

1974 — Andreas Gruentzig performs first peripheral human balloon angioplasty
1976 — Gruentzig presents results of animal studies of coronary angioplasty at American Heart Association meeting

1st intraoperative angioplasty performed in San Francisco

1977 — First human coronary balloon angioplasty performed intraoperatively by Gruentzig, Myler and Hanna in San Francisco

1977 — Andreas Gruentzig performs first cath lab PTCA on awake patient in Zurich; starting with this case, all PTCA data is entered into a worldwide registry

1978 — First PTCA cases performed in America by Myler in San Francisco and Stertzer in New York; Gruentzig conducts first demonstration course in Zurich, Switzerland, attended by 28 pioneering physicians; International Dilatation Society is established

1980 — Gruentzig conducts the last of five demonstration courses in Zurich with Sones, Judkins and Dotter in attendance; he then moves to Atlanta, GA where be becomes Director of Interventional Cardiology at Emory University; National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute begins support of the existing PTCA registry; first 1000 angioplasties are performed worldwide; guiding catheters are introduced
1982 — over-the-wire coaxial balloon systems introduced, brachial guiding catheters & steerable guide wires are developed
1985 — A year of loss in the history of interventional medicine: Dotter, Sones, Judkins and Gruentzig all pass away nine months of each other; Gruentzig dies in a plane crash on Sunday night, October 27; on Monday, October 28, Richard Schatz, co-inventor of the Palmaz-Schatz stent, has an appointment to meet with Gruentzig
1986 — coronary atherectomy devices are introduced; Jacques Puel and Ulrich Sigwart implant the first coronary Wallstents in Toulose, France
1987-1993 — a large number of new interventional devices are invented and perfected; some, like lasers, are less effective than hoped for; others are approved and used worldwide; these devices include rotational atherectomy devices (Rotablator), intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and stents

1994 — the Palmaz-Schatz stent is approved by the F.D.A. for use in the United States
1994-1997 — stents become commonplace and eliminate many complications
1997 — over one million angioplasties will be performed worldwide, making angioplasty the most common medical intervention in the world
2001 — almost two million angioplasties were performed worldwide, with an estimated increase of 8% annually
2002 — the 25th anniversary of the first angioplasty performed in an awake patient
2003 — the first drug-eluting stent, the Cypher, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson / Cordis, is approved by the F.D.A., marking a major advance in the battle to reduce restenosis to single digits
2004 — Boston Scientific gets its Taxus drug-eluting stent approved; many studies are published demonstrating the vastly improved outcomes from drug-eluting stents

References — For further information on the history of PTCA, we recommend the following articles:

Mueller R. and Sanborn T.: The History of Interventional Cardiology, Am Heart J 1995;129:146-72
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Myler R., Stertzer, S.: Coronary and Peripheral Angioplasty: Historic Perspective, Textbook of Interventional Cardiology (2nd Ed.) Vol. 1. Topol, E. (Ed.) WB Saunders Co., Philadelphia,1993
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King, S.B.: Angioplasty From Bench to Bedside to Bench, Circulation 1996;93:1621-1629

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