Limitations
spasm, Radial occlusion, radial occlusion
This is a monocentric study with all adherent limitations. The majority of patients received a 6 F sheath and only about 10% of patients a 5 F or 7 F sheath limiting the informative value for these less frequently used sizes.Radial occlusion was examined one day following coronary angiography given that most patients were discharged on this day. It cannot be excluded that evaluation of the primary endpoint at a later point of time would have shown different result. Data on treatment of radial occlusion were only observative and the majority of patients received oral anticoagulation, which was not standardized. Thus, this study cannot determine the natural course of radial occlusion or if other types of treatment would have had a higher success rate. Even if there was a standard for dosing of periinterventional drugs such as heparin or nitroglycerine, preferences of the operator or clinical circumstances have certainly caused some interindividual variations that might bias our results. Other potential reasons for bias are undetected differences in operator experience or radial vasomotility or spasm.