Percutaneous coronary artery interventions (PCIs), including balloon angioplasty, stent deployment, atherectomy, etc, constitute some of the most important medical advances of the 20th century. Since its initial application in humans in 1977, PCI's growth has been explosive, and it is now used widely for coronary artery revascularization. Properly used in selected patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), PCI improves symptoms and quality of life, and reduces myocardial infarction, death and hospitalizations (1-4). In 1990-91, 16,000 PCI procedures were performed in Canada (5). After an annual increase of 10%, there were 24,000 PCI in 1995-96 (5), a rate of approximately 0.8/1000 people. In the same time period, 1995-96, 666,000 procedures were performed in the United States (6), three times the Canadian rate (2.4/1000). Conservative estimates (the Canadian rate), therefore, suggest that approximately four million PCIs may have been performed worldwide in 1995- 96.