= Charles T. Dotter
{c}
\b[Charles T. Dotter] was a <radiologist> whose work helped establish <interventional radiology>: using imaging-guided vascular access to treat disease as well as visualize it. His Oregon institution credits his 1964 percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with launching that approach. With <Melvin P. Judkins>, he reported the development of catheter-based treatment for arterial obstruction.https://www.ohsu.edu/dotter-interventional-institute[OHSU, Dotter's legacy of innovation:1964 image-guided transluminal angioplasty]{ref}<Percutaneous Transluminal Treatment of Arteriosclerotic Obstruction by Charles T. Dotter and Melvin P. Judkins>[Radiology 84(1965),631–643, originating byline and abstract.]{ref}
The motivating observation was mechanical as well as radiological. Their 1965 report discussed catheter pathways through or alongside obstructed arterial material and illustrated contrast visualization of such passages. An event that could complicate diagnostic catheterization suggested that a new flow path might also be deliberately useful. The report framed the approach as a treatment for obstruction, rather than merely a way to obtain a sharper <radiograph>.<Percutaneous Transluminal Treatment of Arteriosclerotic Obstruction by Charles T. Dotter and Melvin P. Judkins>[Developmental Background and Figures 1–2; stated therapeutic purpose.]{ref}
A separate idealized flow calculation explains why lumen size matters. For a long circular tube carrying steady <laminar flow> of a <Newtonian fluid>, with fixed pressure difference, length and <viscosity>, flow is proportional to the fourth power of the radius. Increasing the radius by a factor of two would increase this model's flow by $2^4=16$. Real <blood vessels> are compliant, flow can be pulsatile and lesions have complicated shapes; the calculation is an explanatory limit, not an outcome predicted for a particular patient.
Dotter's contribution illustrates a scientific change of question: imaging can measure where a passage is obstructed, while an instrument introduced under imaging guidance can alter that passage. Demonstrating instrument passage, restoring flow and establishing durable clinical benefit are distinct evidential steps. The historical report motivates this sequence without making them equivalent.
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