percutaneous transluminal angioplasty

:  a cardiovascular procedure that is performed to widen the lumen of a partially or fully occluded blood vessel (as the femoral or coronary artery) narrowed or blocked typically by atherosclerotic plaque and that involves passing a balloon catheter through the skin and into a blood vessel (as of the groin or arm) to be guided to the site of obstruction where the tip of the catheter is expanded by inflation to compress and flatten the plaque; especially :  percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty—abbreviation PTA