A Pioneer; Charles T Dotter

 Charles T Dotter (1920-1985) who performed the first peripheral angioplasty is considered the father of interventional radiology.  Dotter did his undergraduate studies at Duke and got his M.D. from Cornell in NYC.  In 1952 he was appointed Professor and Chairman of Radiology at the University of Oregon and served for 33 years.

On January 16th 1964, Dotter performed the world's first percutaneous transluminal angioplasty on an 82-year old woman who refused amputation for a gangrenous foot.  Dotter diagnosed a stenosis of the superficial femoral artery and with the use of co-axial catheters dilated the stenotic segment resulting in complete healing of the gangrenous ulcer! Inititialy the technique was received with skepticism in the United States but was readily accepted in Europe.  The patient lived for another 2 1/2 years after this groundbreaking procedure.  Dotter also described other interventional procedures such as the use of arterial stents and the use of transjugular biospies of the liver. 

Dotter was a prolific researcher and published over 300 papers.  His trainee Melvin Judkins did the seminal work in percutaneous coronay angiography. Dotter had many interests such as music, painting, photography, flying airplanes and climbing mountains.

In 1990, the Dotter Institute was established in his honor to further studies in the newly established subspecialties of Interventional Radiology, Interventional Cardiology and in other fields of medicine such as Interventional Neurosurgery.

A Pioneer; Melvin Judkins

Melvin Judkins (1922-1978) was a physician known for the development of pre-shaped catheters for the catheterisation of coronary arteries.  He received his M.D. from the College of Medical Evangelists.  Upon graduation he spent a year at Loma Linda Hospital.  He was then  commissioned by the Army during WWII and served in the 28th General Hospital in Osaka, Japan.

Judkins at the age of 40 studied radiology at the University of Oregon under Dr. Charles Dotter known today as the father of interventional radiology.  He continued his studies at the Cleveland Clinic under Dr. Mason Sones who pioneered coronary angiography.  Later he studied in Sweden under Dr. Sven Seldinger.  It was in Sweden he developed the pre-shaped catheters that could be introduced in the aorta without a need of a cut of the brachial artery.  He brought these new techniques back to the University of Oregon in 1966.  Upon his return he further developed the Judkins' catheter.  He published his technique in Radiology in 1967 and by 1968, his pre-shaped catheters were commercially produced.

In 1969, he became the Chairman of Radiology at Loma Linda and also the director of the cardiovascular laboratories from 1970-1978, during which time his lab was frequented by physicians from all over the world.  Judkins retired in 1978 after suffering a stroke.

I dedicate this post to my cardiologist in Greece Dr. Kostis Tsaparlis who graduated from the University of Athens Medical School.  He returned home after post-graduate studies in England. Because of his knowledge in Cardiology and because he is a caring man those of us who are his patients are truly fortunate.