A 38-year-old man with a blocked coronary artery made history in 1977 when he was the first patient to receive angioplasty in that location (others had been done on smaller, peripheral blood vessels). The surgery went well and relieved his symptoms. Afterwards, he stopped smoking and eventually stopped talking all of his heart medications. Twenty years later, his doctor prescribed aspirin and a statin for his slightly elevated cholesterol levels.

The patient had no symptoms until last year - 23 years after his angioplasty, when he had some chest discomfort. Angiography showed that the site that had been dilated earlier was wide open. He had minor abnormalities elsewhere, and he performed well on an exercise test.

The original surgeon, Dr. Andreas Gruentzig, died in 1985. The patient's current doctor recently commented, “I do not believe he would have dreamed that his first patient could remain free of recurrent symptoms of coronary artery disease for such a long time.”