Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty – PTCA – will forever be linked withA. Gruentzig’s name. Building on the work of Charles Dotter andMalvin Judkins be developped novel technique of revascularisation and established a new speciality – interventional cardiology. The aimof this article is to sum up themost important data onGruentzig’s revolutionary work. Andreas Roland Gruentzig was born on June 25, 1939 in Dresden, Germany. In 1957 he received his B. A. in Leipzig (German Democratic Republic). In 1958, Andreas emigrated to the German Federal Republic, received another B. A. in Heidelberg, and entered the Medical School in Heidelberg where he qualified in 1964. In 1969 he moved to Zurich, Switzerland, in the Dept of Angiology of the University Hospital. He soon appreciated the potential of recanalising partially occluded lower limb arteries using the Dotter-Judkins catheter but also recognised its risks. In 1972–1973 he developped his balloon catheter and performed the first femoral angioplasty in February 12, 1974, and in January 23, 1975 the first one using his new double-lumen catheter. The first experimental coronaroplasty in a dog followed in September 24, 1975. He presented his results with balloon catheters in November 15, 1976 in Miami. After a further period of arduous experimental research – stil manufacturing the catheters with his small crew in the kitchen – he dilated a stenosed coronary artery in a 37-year-old man on September 16, 1977 in Zurich, with immediate relief of symptoms. The results of PTCA in five first patients were published in the February 14, 1978 issue of Lancet; the coronarography in the first patient, on April 10, 2000, revealed normal patency of the site that had been dilated (Prof. B.Meier, Bern). However, the news in Zurich 1978 was received with a certain incredulity and Gruentzig was unable – in spite of Professor Å. Senning’s support – to obtain facilities to expand his research program and clinical activities. In September 1980 he accepted the Chair of Medicine (Cardiology) and Radiology with the additional title of Director of the Dept of Interventional Cardiology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Prof. Hurst gave him half of his office suite at Emory and later even further facilities to expand his program. Here, at Emory, Gruentzig gave 10 angioplasty courses and performed with Dr. S. King and Dr. J. Douglas 5000 PTCAs till 1985. Before reaching the peak of his scientific carrier, he died in a flying accident, with his second wife Margareth Ann, near Forsythe, Monroe County, Georgia, on October 27, 1985. His work was appreciated in tributes from the U. S. A., U. K., Switzerland and Germany, by many international awards and honors; numerous interventional laboratories in the world carry A. R. Gruentzig’s name.

        Key words: balloon angioplasty, balloon catheter, PTCA - historical aspects, A. R. Gruentzig, interventional cardiology, Å. Senning.