After 50 years, a personal reflection on the development of internal thoracic artery (ITA) grafting

It has been 50 years since the first publications of evidence that internal thoracic artery (ITA) grafts successfully bypassed obstructions of coronary arteries in dogs and in humans. The evidence consisted of in vivo measurements of blood flow through the grafts and selective angiograms of the grafts months following operation. It may be of interest to recount how that success came about.