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Medtronic Statement Regarding the Clinical Benefits of ICD Therapy and the ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 Guidelines for Management of Patients With Ventricular Arrhythmias and the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 August 2006, 12:00 CDT

David Steinhaus, MD, Vice President and Medical Director, of the Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management Business Unit at Medtronic Made the Following Statement Regarding the New Guidelines' Executive Summary

"We commend the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the American Heart Association (AHA), and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) for their joint guidance on the management of patients who have experienced or are at risk of developing ventricular arrhythmias - abnormal, rapid heart rhythms that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and sudden cardiac death (SCD). Physicians in the United States and Europe now have a set of consistent clinical guidelines that can help save the lives of millions of people worldwide.

The new ACC/AHA/ESC guidelines are based on the best available medical evidence, and specifically support the use of device therapy - such as cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) - as the standard of care in a broad range of at-risk, indicated heart failure and post-myocardial infarction patients.

We would also like to point out that clinical research shows that:

-- SCA claims more lives each year than AIDS, breast cancer, and stroke combined

-- Device therapy can reduce the risk of SCD by 23 to 55 percent, compared with conventional or traditional drug therapy

-- ICDs are proven to be 98 percent effective in treating dangerous ventricular arrhythmias that can lead to SCA

Medtronic is committed to advancing the care and outcomes of patients at risk for ventricular arrhythmias and SCA, through research including the landmark Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial (SCD-HeFT), the Cardiac Resynchronization in Heart Failure Study (CARE-HF), and the Registry to IMPROVE the Use of Evidence-Based Heart Failure Therapies in the Outpatient Setting (IMPROVE-HF).

We firmly believe that clinical research, the new guidelines, and the recommendations issued last year for heart failure patients, further reinforce the effectiveness of device therapy and ICDs, in particular. Medtronic is committed to working with the appropriate parties to institutionalize these guidelines in an effort to prevent more unnecessary deaths from SCA."

Any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties such as those described in Medtronic's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended April 28, 2006. Actual results may differ materially from anticipated results.

Source: Business Wire

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