Mechanical effect of balloon angioplasty: case report with histology

Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty gained acceptance as an interventional radiologic procedure after development of the balloon technique [1 ], and numerous reports detail its extensive applications [2-1 3]. Because of the low procedural morbidity, however, the literature contains little information regarding the pathologic alterations produced by angioplasty. We describe the arterial morphologic changes induced by percutaneous balloon angioplasty in a