Balloon-assisted tracking during primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Radial artery spasm is one of the most commonly encountered problems during transradial interventions with a reported incidence in the range of 6-10%. Balloon-assisted tracking (BAT) of guide catheter has recently been described as a novel technique to overcome difficult radial artery anatomies including tortuosity, loops and spasm. In this report, we describe the successful use of BAT in a patient with radial artery spasm during primary angioplasty.