Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of the left main coronary artery in acute myocardial infarction

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty is unusual in acute myocardial infarction after left main coronary artery occlusion. We applied this therapy in two cases. The first, a 54-year-old man, submitted to mechanical reperfusion and left main coronary artery angioplasty 145 minutes after the beginning of the symptoms and coronary artery surgery 12 hours later; the second, a 77-year-old woman, submitted to both procedures but not to surgery. In the first case there was a satisfactory follow-up but in the second, the patient died twelve hours later.