Boston Scientific Completes Enrollment in Landmark Heart Failure Trial

NATICK, Mass., April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) today announced completion of enrollment in the Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial with Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (MADIT-CRT). The trial includes 1,820 patients and examines the potential benefits of Boston Scientific cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds) in a new population of heart failure patients. It is the latest in a series of landmark randomized clinical trials sponsored by Boston Scientific's Cardiac Rhythm Management group, following in the tradition of MADIT, MADIT II and COMPANION.

MADIT-CRT is designed to test whether CRT-Ds can slow the progression of heart failure in heart attack survivors and in those with other forms of impaired heart function. The trial may demonstrate if earlier intervention with CRT-D therapy can slow a patient's progression from early-stage heart failure (as defined by the New York Heart Association as Class I and II) to late-stage heart failure (Class III and IV).

"This study builds on the observations made in the COMPANION trial, which evaluated the benefits of CRT-D therapy in patients with late-stage, symptomatic heart failure," said Arthur Moss, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester, NY, and Principal Investigator of MADIT-CRT. "If positive, this trial may address the still unanswered question about the potential of resynchronization defibrillator therapy to inhibit the clinical progression of heart failure through earlier intervention."

"Boston Scientific is proud to sponsor MADIT-CRT, an important continuation of more than a decade of MADIT family trials," said Jim Tobin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boston Scientific. "This robust study design was created by leading cardiologists and is supported by medical science with appropriate endpoints to determine whether CRT-Ds can slow the progression of heart failure in Class I and II patients."

Approximately 70 percent of all heart failure patients fall into Class I or II. Nearly 22 million people worldwide, including approximately 5.5 million Americans, currently suffer from some form of heart failure. Nearly one million new cases of heart failure are diagnosed annually worldwide, making it the most rapidly growing cardiovascular disorder.

Boston Scientific is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices whose products are used in a broad range of interventional medical specialties. For more information, please visit: http://www.bostonscientific.com.

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SOURCE Boston Scientific Corporation