In Memoriam – Lucien Campeau (1927–2010)

Dr Lucien Campeau, eminent cardiologist and researcher, died on March 15, 2010. He spent his whole career – roughly 45 years – at the Montreal Heart Institute (Montreal, Quebec), where he was a recognized leader, a great clinician, an outstanding teacher and a world renowned researcher. Dr Lucien Campeau was born in Sudbury, Ontario, on June 20, 1927. He obtained his medical degree from Laval University in Quebec City, Quebec, then completed a residency in internal medicine at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan (USA), and a Fellowship in cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). He joined the staff at the Montreal Heart Institute in 1957, only three years after it was founded by Dr Paul David. He held several positions at the Institute, either successively or jointly, as Chief of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Chief of the Department of Medicine and Director of Teaching. His reputation as a skillful clinician was widely recognized and he was often referred difficult cases, and cases involving political or other prominent personalities. As a teacher, he contributed, with his colleagues at the Institute, to the postgraduate training of several hundred cardiologists from Canada, the United States and Europe – some of whom are currently world leaders in cardiology. For his colleagues and for the medical profession in general, however, his name will remain primarily associated with his numerous and important scientific contributions. During the 1960s, he collaborated, with colleagues at the Institute, to the improvement of selective coronary angiography and to the early evaluation of cardiac transplantation (1,2). Starting in 1970 and over a period of roughly 15 years, he was involved in a systematic study of the outcome of aortocoronary bypass grafts, a follow-up that has had considerable impact on the subsequent surgical management of coronary artery disease (3). In 1972, he chaired the ad hoc committee that developed the Canadian Cardiovascular Society classification of angina pectoris and published it in a letter to Circulation in 1976 (4). This grading system was rapidly and widely accepted, as demonstrated by the 284 current PubMed citations with the key words “CCS class”. Undoubtedly, his most definitive contribution to 21st century cardiology was his description of the radial artery technique of coronary angiography. The main description was published in 1989 (5). In the mid-1990s, it was adapted by European investigators to coronary angioplasty and coronary stenting (6). Thus, patient mobilization and discharge from hospital are greatly abbreviated after interventional cardiology. More recently, Dr Lucien Campeau contributed significantly to the treatment of hyperlipidemia in coronary patients through the Post Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Trial (7), a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute study that he directed and that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In addition to being a member of numerous scientific societies, Dr Lucien Campeau also held prestigious positions in several of them. Among others, he was President of the Association of Quebec Cardiologists, President of the Montreal Cardiac Society, President of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and Governor for Quebec of the American College of Cardiology. He was awarded several prizes, including the Jean Lenegre Prize, the Wilbert J Keon Award, the Carsley Prize, the Coeur Quebec Prize from the Fondation des maladies du Coeur du Quebec, and the Excellence in Research Prize from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. Dr Lucien Campeau had a great love for sailing and skiing – activities that he shared with his friends, his wife and his four sons. When he retired, he also renewed his passion for golf, which he practiced as often as possible. My most sincere condolences to his wife, Marielle, and to his sons, Michel, Alain, Marc and Stephane.