ABSTRACT
Chronic total coronary occlusions (CTOs) are common, and found in about one-third of patients with significant coronary artery disease who undergo angiography. In the analysis of a selected patient cohort from the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation (BARI) study1, CTOs represented approximately 30% of lesions even after excluding many patients with a CTO who had been ineligible for randomization to the revascularization procedure of the original BARI study. Among patients undergoing coronary angiography during a 1-year period, Kahn2 also documented one or more CTOs in approximately one-third of cases during a 1-year period.
