"This is the original report of the first fully implantable pacemaker that was designed by Elmqvist and surgically inserted under the skin of a patient in October 1958. It is an abstract of their presentation that signalled (along with events in Minneapolis) the birth of the modern pacemaker industry" (W. Bruce Fye).

Grüntzig developed the first successful balloon angioplasty for expanding lumens of narrowed arteries.

Abstract

"In percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, a catheter system is introduced through a systemic artery under local anesthesia to dilate a stenotic artery by controlled inflation of a distensible balloon.

"Over the past 18 months, we have used this technic in 50 patients. The technic was successful in 32 patients, reducing the stenosis from a mean of 84 to 34 per cent (P<0.001) and the coronary-pressure gradient from a mean of 58 to 19 mm Hg (P<0.001). Twenty-nine patients showed improvement in cardiac function during follow-up examination. Because of acute deterioration in clinical status, emergency bypass was later necessary in five patients; three showed electrocardiograpic evidence of infarcts.

"Patients with single-vessel disease appear to be most suitable for the procedure, and a short history of pain indicates the presence of a soft (distensible) atheroma likely to respond to dilatation. We estimate that only about 10 to 15 per cent of candidates for bypass surgery have lesions suitable for this procedure. A prospective randomized trial will be necessary to evaluate its usefulness in comparison with surgical and medical management. (N Engl J Med 301:61–68, 1979)."

Prior to the 1979 paper Grüntzig published a preliminary, abbreviated paper on the method: "Perkutane Dilatation von Coronarstenosen — Beschreibung eines neuen Kathetersystems. Percutaneous dilatation of experimental coronary artery stenosis — description of a new catheter system," Klinische Wochenschrift, 54 (1976) 543-545.