J.D. a 51-year-old man with a history of hyperlipidemia and smoking was referred to our Institution for the acute onset of an extensive anterior myocardial infarction.

The coronary angiogram showed complete occlusion of a calcified left anterior descending artery at the level first diagonal branch origin (fig. 1). We used the PROXIS™ catheter to avoid distal embolization during the PTCA procedure. After device positioning, through a guiding catheter ZUMA™ 7F JL4, the PROXIS™ balloon was inflated before advancing the 0.014’ guidewire across the lesion. A little injection of contrast media demonstrated the absence of flow distally to the PROXIS™ catheter (fig. 2). Then the wire was advanced and a predilatation using a 2.5 mm x 20 mm balloon catheter (Sprinter, Medtronic, MN - USA) inflated at 14 atm followed by double stenting for complete...continua a leggere