Dr. William Ganz, Cedars-Sinai cardiologist and co-inventer of balloon-tipped catheter, dead at 90

Dr. William Ganz, a pioneering cardiologist and one of the inventors of a specialized catheter, has died. He was 90.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center released a statement Wednesday saying Ganz died of natural causes Tuesday in Los Angeles.

In 1970, Ganz and Dr. H.J.C. Swan invented a balloon-tipped catheter that measures heart function and blood flow in critically ill patients. The Swan-Ganz Catheter is still used by physicians across the world.

The hospital says Ganz also experimented with treating heart attacks by dissolving coronary artery blood clots in the early 1980s

He was born in Slovakia, educated in Prague and escaped communist Hungary to move to Los Angeles with his family in 1966. He is survived by his two sons, who are both doctors.

More later at www.latimes.com/obits.

-- Associated Press