March 28, 2009 -- Orlando,
Florida -- New data released today at the 2009 American
College of Cardiology meeting demonstrated exceptional long-term
safety
and effectiveness results for the Endeavor drug-eluting coronary
stent from Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), in a large multicenter,
real-world study, in which no defined patient selection criteria
were specified, and angioplasty was used at medical discretion.
Two-year results for more than 2,000 patients in the international,
E-Five study show that the Endeavor stent was associated with
a low rate of both overall (0.7 percent) and very late stent
thrombosis (VLAST) at 0.1 percent.
Long-term controlled clinical
studies of other approved drug eluting stents (DES) reveal
a small but consistent (0.3 percent/year) increase in the
frequently-fatal VLAST complication. The E-Five findings
run counter to expectations
based upon these prior studies of other DES which have also
reported an approximate doubling (0.6 percent/year) in the
rate of VLAST when these devices are used in real-world patient
populations. |