Emory, Balloon Angioplasty and Musk's Attack on Medical Diplomacy – Healthcare Blog

Mike Magee

“The recently announced limit on NIH grants is an example that will significantly reduce the basic funding of Emory’s research.”

Emory University President Gregory L. Fenes

In 1900, the life expectancy of the United States was 47 years. Between childhood births and maternal deaths in infectious diseases, it is no wonder that cardiovascular disease (which was hardly understood at the time) was an afterthought. But by 1930, as life expectancy approached 60 years, Americans stood up and noticed. They died on the softball field where they had a heart attack.

It is worth noting that despite scientific advances, nearly 1 million Americans (931,578) died from a heart disease in 2024. That was 28% of the 3,279,857 deaths last year.

As every high school student knows today, the main cause of heart disease is the blockage of one or more of the three major coronary arteries – every three to 10 cm and four millimeters wide. But at the turn of the century, experts had no clues. This suggestion was met with incredible when James Herrick first used coronary artery lockdown as the cause of heart seizures in 1912. Seven years later, in 1919, the clinical discovery of “myocardial infarction” was first associated with abnormal ECG.

Scientists have been aware of the anatomy of the human heart for some time, but they were not able to see it in action until 1929. At that time, a 24-year-old German medical intern named Werner Forssmann proposed the idea of ​​penetrating a ureteral catheter into his heart through an arm vein.

His boss refused permission to conduct the experiment. But with junior accomplices, including obsessed nurses and trained radiologists, he secretly inserted his heart into his heart and injected dye, the first time living 4-cavity heart. For twenty years, Werner Forssmann's “Operation Reckless” has been awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Medicine. But the Cleveland Clinic Director of Cardiovascular Diseases (if unintentional) takes the coronary artery itself without inducing a heart attack in his 26-year-old patient with rheumatic heart disease, then the other two years will pass two years.

But this was the head of the United States for all the Allies in World War II, and he became US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who could say that the world's focus on this “public enemy 1” had the greatest impact on the world. His seven heart attacks, from the public's perspective, became increasingly publicly aware of the situation, and eventually claimed his life in 1969.

Cardiac catheterization quickly became a relatively standard thing. Not surprisingly, less than a decade later, on September 16, 1977, East German physician Andreas Gruntzig performed the first Baron angioplasty, but not without drama.

Dr. Gruntzig has moved to Zurich, Switzerland to pursue this new, non-invasive artery non-invasive technology. But first, he had to make his own catheter. He tested dogs in 1976 and shared his positive results at the 49th Science Conference of the American Heart Association in Miami Beach in November of that year.

That year, he returned to Zurich, hoping to quickly approve the procedure on human candidates. But a year later, the Swiss board still didn't give him a green light to use his newly improved dual-pipe conduit. Instead, Richard Myler of the San Francisco Heart Institute invited him to do his first ever balloon coronary angioplasty on a awake patient.

The Gruntzig arrived in May 1977 and was handheld. He was able to successfully enlarge the arteries of several anesthetized patients who were undergoing open cardiac coronary bypass surgery. But sadly, after two weeks of shelving, no appropriate candidates appeared in minimally invasive balloon angioplasty in patients with non-anesthesia heart attacks.

Meanwhile, Adolf Bachmann, a 38-year-old insurance salesman, surfaced severe coronary stenosis, angina and electrocardiogram changes in Zurich. By verbally ensuring that he could move on, Gruntzig returned to Zurich again. The landmark procedures at the University Hospital of Zurich are free of barriers, and the rest is history.

Within a few years, Gruntzig accepted a professorship at Emory University and moved with his family. He was welcomed by the Director of Interventional Cardiovascular Medicine.

“Unlike Switzerland, the United States immediately realized Grenzger's ability and ability to advance. Grenzger was classified as a “national treasure” by authorities in 1980; however, he never obtained U.S. citizenship. Emory University just received a range of donations from 2014, the largest range for a family, the largest range for a family (a certain amount of $2500 billion), which is $2500 billion, which is $2500 billion, which is $2500 billion. To an academic institution that allows hospitals to expand treatment for coronary artery disease using balloon angioplasty technology.”

Guunt's star rose rapidly in Atlanta. His combination of acting skills, technical skills, appearance and communication skills elicited an immediate reaction. Historians see him as anthropomorphism of the American Dream. As they said, “The first annual course held in Atlanta was held in February 1981. More than 200 cardiologists from around the world came to see this amazing teacher. The course lasted 3 and 1/2 days, with a real-time teaching case every half day, and for each subsequent course, Angiopeptuse’s momentum increased.”

According to Emory's records, “In Emory in less than 5 years, Grüntzig performed more than 3,000 PTCA procedures without losing one patient.” It is worth noting that after 10 symptoms years, Gruntzig's original patient, Adolf Bachmann, allowed an interventional cardiologist to reconnect him on September 16, 1987 (the 10th anniversary of his original procedure). The official report shows that the arteries remain open and the patient has no symptoms.

As this brief history illustrates, science has historically been a cooperative and common event on the world stage. In this era, Trump/Musk simultaneously dismantled the United States’ scientific discovery capabilities, undermined historical cooperation among countries, and left behind international cooperation in public health programs, which is useful, remember that institutions like Emory have well understood that science requires international cooperation and not only has the ability to heal individuals, but also promote healthy diplomacy.

Mike Magee, MD, is a medical historian and a regular contributor to THCB. He is the author of Kirkus Star review Code Blue: Inside the American Medical Industry Complex. (Grove/2020)