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Typical treatments may include balloon angioplasty, the placement of stents or the removal of plaque with a bladed catheter, also known as an atherectomy.

As a young physician, Dr. Kent traveled to Zurich to study balloon angioplasty with Andreas Gruentzig, a German doctor widely known for being the first to develop and use it successfully as a method to expand narrowed coronary arteries, a leading cause of heart attacks.

Kenneth M. Kent, a Washington cardiologist and leading promoter of balloon angioplasty procedures to reduce coronary artery blockages and prevent heart attacks, died May 14 at a nursing home in Potomac, Md. He was 81.

Brown now has three stents in his heart, including a new one this summer after he had balloon angioplasty to open a clogged artery.

In the 1980s, Andreas Gruentzig, a pioneer in balloon angioplasty, had a coronary angiogram done on himself.