Andreas Gruentzig

Andreas Grüntzig (1939 to 1985) was a German American radiologist and cardiologist, born in Dresden, who is known as the first to develop successful balloon angioplasty for widening narrowed arteries. After medical studies at Heidelberg University he moved to Zürich in 1969 and worked in angiology at the university hospital there. On 16 September 1977 he performed the first successful coronary angioplasty on an awake patient, using a carefully built catheter, and he presented his first four cases at the American Heart Association meeting that year. He joined Emory University School of Medicine in 1980, where he and Spencer King ran live demonstration courses on the technique that began in February 1981 and drew over 200 cardiologists.