Professor Wolfgang Münster, MD has died after a short but severe illness at the age of 82. Professor Münster was among the pioneers of pediatric interventional cardiology and interventional radiology.
After completing his apprenticeship in bookselling in Jena, he studied medicine at the Humboldt University Berlin from 1952 to 1957. In 1962, he started his residency in radiology at the Charité. His special interest was in cardiac catheterization of pediatric cardiac patients and abdominal angiography. With his extraordinary manual skills and systematic scientific approach, Professor Münster was involved in the development of catheterization techniques for babies and small children with congenital heart defects. The state of the art of catheterization at that time was described by him in an original paper published in 1964: “Intraarterial diagnostic procedures using catheters in small children and babies is considered even today as something that cannot be performed or is met with many reservations. It appears, therefore, necessary to draw attention to their applicability in principle on the basis of 103 investigations.” [1]. Fifty years later, worldwide several hundred children are examined and/or treated using minimally invasive technologies daily.
In 1966, at the Charité-Institute of Cardiovascular Diagnosis headed by Werner Porstmann (1921–1982) a patent ductus arteriosus was successfully closed using a catheter technique for the first time [2]. This achievement brought worldwide recognition to the working group. This milestone, together with Rashkind's balloon septostomy (1966) and the first coronary dilatation carried out by Andreas Grüntzig (1977) can be considered as the beginning of the era of interventional cardiology.
In 1981 Wolfgang Münster was appointed full Professor of radiology at the Charité in Berlin. After the death of Professor Porstmann in 1982, Professor Münster led the Charité-Institute of Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy for almost a decade.
Internationality – in a country that was surrounded by a wall – was an important characteristic of his work. Werner Forßmann (1904–1979), the Nobel Prize Laureate of 1956, who successfully performed right heart catheterization in 1929, but had to leave the Charité for carrying out this procedure on himself, was one among the numerous people worldwide who visited this institute [3]. Fifty years later, in 1979 an honorary doctorate was conferred upon Werner Forßmann by the Charité/Humboldt University, thanks to the efforts of Porstmann and Münster. Forßmann thus became the only medical doctor from West Germany on whom East Germany bestowed this mark of distinction. In particular, Professor Münster established very close relationships with colleagues in Poland and in the Czech Republic.
With the death of Professor Wolfgang Münster, interventional medicine has lost an exceptionally gifted physician and an outstanding personality.
Conflict of interest
The authors report no relationships that could be construed as a conflict of interest.
References
- 1.Porstmann W., Wierny L., Münster W. Methodik der Gefäßkatheterisierung beim Kleinkind und Säugling. Fortschr Röntgenstr. 1964;100(5):646–651. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Porstmann W., Wierny L., Warnke H. Der Verschluß des Ductus arteriosus persistens ohne Thorakotomie (vorläufige Mitteilung) Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 1967;15(2):199–203. doi: 10.1055/s-0028-1100618. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Forßmann Werner. Die Sondierung des Rechten Herzens. Klin Wochenschr. 1929;8(45):2085–2087. [Google Scholar]