Ohio inventions and firsts · First · 1958
Coronary angiography
On October 30, 1958 F. Mason Sones at the Cleveland Clinic accidentally injected contrast dye directly into a patient's right coronary artery; the patient survived, and Sones refined selective coronary angiography.
At a glance
- Year
- 1958
- Company
- Cleveland Clinic
- Place
- Cleveland, Cuyahoga County Cleveland · Cuyahoga County
The story
Doctors in the 1950s could not see inside the arteries of a living heart. A blocked coronary artery caused heart attacks, but no one could tell where the blockage was before it was too late.
On October 30, 1958, Dr. F. Mason Sones at the Cleveland Clinic was working with a young cardiac patient when contrast dye was accidentally injected straight into the right coronary artery. The patient survived. The accident showed that small amounts of dye could be injected directly into the arteries safely, so the arteries could be seen on X-ray.
Sones refined the technique into selective coronary angiography. He directed the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Cardiovascular Disease from 1966 to 1975, founded and led the Society for Cardiac Angiography, and won the AMA's Scientific Achievement Award in 1978. He lived from 1918 to 1985.
His colleague René Favaloro called him the most important contributor to modern cardiology, and said his work was essential to heart bypass surgery.
Timeline
- 1958-10-30: Dye is accidentally injected into the right coronary artery of a young patient at the Cleveland Clinic. (Cleveland, OH) source
- 1966-1975: Sones directs the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Cardiovascular Disease. (Cleveland, OH) source
- 1967: René Favaloro performs coronary bypass surgery, helped by Sones's images. (Cleveland, OH) source
- 1969: Sones receives the Gairdner Foundation International Award. source
- 1978: He receives the AMA Scientific Achievement Award. source
- 1985: Sones dies. source
What it changed
- Doctors could see blocked coronary arteries and plan treatment.
- Favaloro credited it as essential to bypass surgery.
Why it matters
Enabled bypass surgery.
Further reading
Sources
Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.