To clarify the current role of balloon angioplasty in interventional cardiology, in an era of increasing development of new devices, especially stents, we performed a retrospective comparative evaluation within the well-known BENESTENT trial. We defined a balloon angioplasty result of diameter stenosis less than 30% by quantitative angiography a 'stent-like' result and compared 6-month angiographic and 1-year clinical outcome with patients undergoing Palmaz-Schatz stent implantation. Patients having a so-defined 'stent-like' result had similar angiographic and clinical outcomes to patients receiving a stent. It is concluded that achievement of a postangioplasty diameter stenosis less than 30% may be considered clinically equivalent to the average result of Palmaz-Schatz stent implantation.