The best of coronary angioplasty in 2000 or already the post-interventional

The year 2000 ! The left main coronary and myocardial infarction have falle n. The last obstacles confronting the interventional cardiologist have been overcome with the help of stenting. The interventional cardiologist is now working in a limited, well defined functional space and anatomic territory , of which stenting is the main element. It is now known that the successful treatment of arterial stenosis is not n ecessarily victory over the lesion. The time of conquest and pioneers is ov er. We are now confronted with the problem of justification of the act by v alidation of the method and strategies. This is an era of training, organis ation and management of the practice with the elaboration and respect of sc ientific recommendations. Finally, there are new challenges: that of resten osis, and the progression of atherothrombosis, which have led interventiona l cardiologists to develop: on the one hand, diagnostic tools assessing the arterial lesion just beyond the opacification of the arterial lumen and, o n the other hand, therapeutic techniques superseding a mechanical effect on the stenosis. Thus, we are beginning to see the first preventive and curative biological treatments (brachytherapy, gene therapy, anti-atheromatous chemotherapy), f ounded on a multidisciplinary approach to atheromatous disease.