Who's most at risk when undergoing the common, artery-opening procedure known as angioplasty? A major U.S. study may have come up with some answers -- risk factors that doctors can use to gauge the odds of death after angioplasty, also known as "percutaneous coronary intervention" (PCI).

"This is the largest representation of PCI practice in the country," said study co-author Dr. Sunil V. Rao, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "It is a nice cross-section of what is happening nationwide," he said…

The new approach has two important advantages over existing PCI risk-assessment models, said Dr. Kirk Garratt, who helped develop a previous model 10 years ago at the Mayo Clinic, and who now is director of clinical research at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

HealthDay, by Ed Edelson, 3/31/2010

Tags: angioplasty, Cardiology