TY - JOUR
T1 - Balloon Angioplasty – The Legacy of Andreas Grüntzig, M.D. (1939–1985)
AU - Barton, Matthias
AU - Grüntzig, Johannes
AU - Husmann, Marc
AU - Rösch, Josef
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are most indebted to Grüntzig’s former assistant Maria Schlumpf, Zürich, for her help, and thank her as well as Felix Mahler, M.D., and Ernst Schneider, M.D., who worked with Andreas Grüntzig at the time at the Division of Angiology of Zürich University’s Medical Policlinic at the Kantonsspital, for discussion, for providing and allowing to re-use historical material, and for critical review and comments on the initial manuscript draft. The authors also thank Johan Senning, M.D., Zürich, and Wolfgang Bircks, M.D., Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Germany, for sharing personal memories. This article has been extended based on a manuscript originally submitted on July 19, 2014. The authors’ research in vascular medicine is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation grants Nr. 108 258 and 122 504 (to Dr. Barton), the Swiss Heart Foundation (to Dr. Husmann), and by Matching Funds of the University of Zürich (to Dr. Husmann).
Funding Information:
On April 8, 1964, Grüntzig graduated from medical school at the University of Heidelberg and two years earlier had published his first scientific article which included the data of his D.M. thesis on ventilation effects on dead space changes (79). He wrote his thesis under the supervision of Gotthard Schettler, M.D. (1917–1996), one of Germany’s foremost atherosclerosis researchers at the time (80). After completion of his internship (Medizinalassistenten-zeit) in hospitals in Mannheim, Hannover, Bad Harzburg, and Ludwigshafen, by the end of September 1966 Grüntzig returned to his Alma Mater with the goal to pursue a career in public health. Grüntzig’s mentor, former physiologist Hans Schäfer, M.D. (1906–2000) and now Director of the newly founded Institute of Social and Occupational Medicine at the University of Heidelberg, secured him a postdoctoral research fellowship, which also included training in public health and statistics in London and was supported by a scholarship of the Council of Europe (Europarat). Grüntzig later recalled about his research in London:
Funding Information:
determined to test its feasibility in coronary artery disease patients (99, 116). Only now, having successfully completed translational research that had already resulted in a new, non-surgical treatment of occluded peripheral arteries and established coronary angioplasty in experimental studies (74, 121, 122), Grüntzig applied for research funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Within the next 4 years, he was awarded three SNSF research grants as Principal Investigator (125–127).
Funding Information:
The authors are most indebted to Grüntzig’s former assistant Maria Schlumpf, Zürich, for her help, and thank her as well as Felix Mahler, M.D., and Ernst Schneider, M.D., who worked with Andreas Grüntzig at the time at the Division of Angiology of Zürich University’s Medical Policlinic at the Kantonsspital, for discussion, for providing and allowing to re-use historical material, and for critical review and comments on the initial manuscript draft. The authors also thank Johan Senning, M.D., Zürich, and Wolfgang Bircks, M.D., Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Germany, for sharing personal memories. This article has been extended based on a manuscript originally submitted on July 19, 2014. The authors’ research in vascular medicine is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation grants Nr. 108 258 and 122 504 (to Dr. Barton), the Swiss Heart Foundation (to Dr. Hus-mann), and by Matching Funds of the University of Zürich (to Dr. Husmann).
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2014 Barton, Grüntzig, Husmann and Rösch.
PY - 2014/12/29
Y1 - 2014/12/29
N2 - In 1974, at the Medical Policlinic of the University of Zürich, German-born physician-scientist Andreas Grüntzig (1939–1985) for the first time applied a balloon-tipped catheter to re-open a severely stenosed femoral artery, a procedure, which he initially called “percutaneous transluminal dilatation”. Balloon angioplasty as a therapy of atherosclerotic vascular disease, for which Grüntzig and Charles T. Dotter (1920–1985) received a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1978, became one of the most successful examples of translational medicine in the twentieth century. Known today as percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in peripheral arteries or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in coronary arteries, balloon angioplasty has become the method of choice to treat patients with acute myocardial infarction or occluded leg arteries. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of balloon angioplasty, we summarize Grüntzig’s life and career in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States and also review the developments in vascular medicine from the 1890s to the 1980s, including Dotter’s first accidental angioplasty in 1963. The work of pioneers of catheterization, including Pedro L. Fariñas in Cuba, André F. Cournand in France, Werner Forssmann, Werner Porstmann and Eberhard Zeitler in Germany, António Egas Moniz and Reynaldo dos Santos in Portugal, Sven-Ivar Seldinger in Sweden, and Barney Brooks, Thomas J. Fogarty, Melvin P. Judkins, Richard K. Myler, Dickinson W. Richards, and F. Mason Sones in the United States, is discussed. We also present quotes by Grüntzig and excerpts from his unfinished autobiography, statements of Grüntzig’s former colleagues and contemporary witnesses, and have included hitherto unpublished historic photographs and links to archive recordings and historic materials. This year, on June 25, 2014, Andreas Grüntzig would have celebrated his 75th birthday. This article is dedicated to his memory.
AB - In 1974, at the Medical Policlinic of the University of Zürich, German-born physician-scientist Andreas Grüntzig (1939–1985) for the first time applied a balloon-tipped catheter to re-open a severely stenosed femoral artery, a procedure, which he initially called “percutaneous transluminal dilatation”. Balloon angioplasty as a therapy of atherosclerotic vascular disease, for which Grüntzig and Charles T. Dotter (1920–1985) received a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1978, became one of the most successful examples of translational medicine in the twentieth century. Known today as percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in peripheral arteries or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in coronary arteries, balloon angioplasty has become the method of choice to treat patients with acute myocardial infarction or occluded leg arteries. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of balloon angioplasty, we summarize Grüntzig’s life and career in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States and also review the developments in vascular medicine from the 1890s to the 1980s, including Dotter’s first accidental angioplasty in 1963. The work of pioneers of catheterization, including Pedro L. Fariñas in Cuba, André F. Cournand in France, Werner Forssmann, Werner Porstmann and Eberhard Zeitler in Germany, António Egas Moniz and Reynaldo dos Santos in Portugal, Sven-Ivar Seldinger in Sweden, and Barney Brooks, Thomas J. Fogarty, Melvin P. Judkins, Richard K. Myler, Dickinson W. Richards, and F. Mason Sones in the United States, is discussed. We also present quotes by Grüntzig and excerpts from his unfinished autobiography, statements of Grüntzig’s former colleagues and contemporary witnesses, and have included hitherto unpublished historic photographs and links to archive recordings and historic materials. This year, on June 25, 2014, Andreas Grüntzig would have celebrated his 75th birthday. This article is dedicated to his memory.
KW - Alexis Carrel
KW - Andreas Gruentzig
KW - Nobel Prize
KW - Robert Hegglin
KW - atherosclerosis
KW - autobiography
KW - biography
KW - coronary artery disease
KW - peripheral vascular disease
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85013244912&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85013244912&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fcvm.2014.00015
DO - 10.3389/fcvm.2014.00015
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85013244912
SN - 2297-055X
VL - 1
JO - Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine
JF - Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine
M1 - 15
ER -