Coronary artery-left ventricular fistula with angina pectoris

Abstract

placed into 0.52 cm (inner diameter) glass tubes (Fig. I), carefully measured, and cut to fixed lengths of either 5 mm (nine samples) or 8 mm (six samples). Each thrombus was then subjected to controlled thermal injury using laser radiation from an argon-ion source. The radius of the beam onto the surface of the clot was 1.25 mm. Using power intensities ranging from 3.0 to 10.5 W, the laser beam created a vaporized hole along its pathway into the thrombus (Fig. 2). Following measurements of the time required to completely penetrate the thrombus, the apparent energy density or irradiation dose was determined. For a 5 mm long clot, canalization time was 50.9 I 17.9 seconds with the dose of 50.2 t 13.4 J/mm2; for an 8 mm thrombus it was 110.9 t 41.0 seconds with 138.4 lr 39.8 J/mm?. Thus these studies indicate the feasibility of using laser therapy to create patency and reestablish blood flow in a thrombus-occluded vessel.