Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in the Current Era Compared With 1985–1986 The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Registries

Background—Although refinements have occurred in coronary angioplasty over the past decade, little is known about whether these changes have affected outcomes. Methods and Results—Baseline features and in-hospital and 1-year outcomes of 1559 consecutive patients in the 1997–1998 Dynamic Registry who were having first coronary intervention were compared with 2431 patients in the 1985–1986 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Registry. Compared with patients in the 1985–1986 Registry, Dynamic Registry patients were older (mean age, 62 versus 58 years; P<0.001) and more often female (32.1% versus 25.5%; P<0.001). In the Dynamic Registry, procedures were more often performed for acute myocardial infarction (22.9% versus 9.9%; P<0.001) and treated lesions were more severe (84.5% versus 82.5% diameter reduction; P<0.001), thrombotic (22.1% versus 11.3%; P<0.001) or calcified (29.5% versus 10.8%; P<0.001). Stents were used in 70.5% of Dynamic Registry patients, whereas 1985–1986 patients received balloon an...