Use of a hollow wire to facilitate angioplasty of occluded vessels.

An USCI 0.038 inch (0.97 mm) floppy tipped hollow wire was used to facilitate the passage of angioplasty guide wires across severe stenoses or vessel occlusions before balloon angioplasty. The hollow wire was passed through a standard 7 or 8 French gauge Judkins coronary catheter to establish whether the obstruction could be breached. This reduced the cost of failure because angioplasty guiding systems were not committed to procedures that were unlikely to be successful. The hollow wire provides stability for the passage of the guide wire and can be used to measure distal pressure and inject contrast. To date it has been used in a total of 15 cases of occluded vessels; it failed to cross the lesion in four cases. Successful angioplasty followed in all patients in whom the lesion was crossed.