Antonio Columbo MD

Prof. Antonio Colombo’s career started with his move to the United States where he pursued full training in General Internal Medicine and Cardiology. In 1987, Prof. Colombo returned to Italy where he began the practice of Interventional Cardiology. At that time, in Italy, Interventional Cardiology for the treatment of coronary artery disease was in its infancy.

Prof. Colombo’s interest, and developments to which he contributed, were mainly in the field of coronary stenting. His observations were pivotal in allowing the utilization of stenting with only antiplatelet therapy, liberating this procedure from oral anticoagulation and the risk of stent thrombosis. These findings and suggestions were presented in a seminal paper written for Circulation in 1995.

Prof. Colombo pioneered the use of coronary stents in the treatment of complex coronary artery disease, conceiving the concept of short and long stents.

At present, Prof. Colombo is on the Editorial Board of the major international journals of Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology. He holds the position of Professor of Cardiology at The University Vita e Salute of San Raffaele Hospital and he has been an author of over a thousand original papers.

These accomplishments led him to receiving the honor of Best Clinical Researcher in the year 1994, awarded by the Thorax Center, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and the Career Award at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutic Symposia in 1998.