Research work · 2018
The history of interventional cardiology
Oxford Textbook of Interventional Cardiology
Abstract
The history of the understanding of the heart shows how far scientific research has come. Experimentation resulted in the scientific discovery of congenital heart disease by Mason Sones, whose work led to the understanding of obstructive coronary artery disease, risk stratification for patients, and subsequently to a road map for revascularization procedures. Werner Forssmann is another significant name, having demonstrated the feasibility of placing catheters in the heart by passing a urethral catheter through his own brachial vein into his right atrium. This chapter focuses on the scientific developments following on from these discoveries.