Oct 10, 2000
New Guidant-Sponsored CME Program on Medscape.com to Raise Awareness of Silent Killer

Diagnosing Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms A Growing Concern for Family and Primary Care Physicians

Indianapolis, IN - Guidant Corporation (NYSE and PCX: GDT), a global leader in the medical technology industry, announced today its support for a continuing medical education (CME) program on abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). The program "AAA: Screening for a Silent Threat," is available exclusively on Medscape.com, and is designed to raise awareness of AAA among primary care and family physicians, and underscore the importance of early diagnosis. This Medscape CME program was supported via an unrestricted educational grant from Guidant. Medscape (NASDAQ: MDLI) is the leading provider of digital health records and online medical information.

"As a company dedicated to saving and improving lives through innovation, we are very pleased to sponsor this important CME program," said Jay Watkins, president, Cardiac & Vascular Surgery Group, Guidant Corporation. "We would hope that all family and primary care physicians become aware of how to diagnose AAA before the condition becomes a life-threatening emergency."

AAA is an enlargement of the aorta, the main artery of the human body, resulting from a weakening of the vessel wall. If untreated, this enlargement can lead to aortic rupture, which in nearly 80 percent of cases, results in death. It is believed that as many as 1.5 million people in the United States have AAA, and approximately 200,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Many cases of AAA go undetected, as the disease is usually asymptomatic and often diagnosed by coincidence - such as ultrasounds - for other medical conditions. This disease results in major surgery for more than 45,000 patients per year. Approximately 15,000 deaths each year are attributed to AAA, making it the nation''s 13th leading cause of death. It is one of the leading causes of death in men over the age of 65.

"Early screening for and detection of AAA can potentially save thousands of lives," said George D. Lundberg, M.D., Medscape executive vice president and editor in chief. "As a result of reviewing the Medscape CME program, family and primary care physicians will be equipped with the necessary information to conduct these screenings."

Medscape''s Instant CME program allows doctors to get their CME credit certificates in seconds rather than weeks or months through the mail. The program also provides doctors with a tracking system, Instant CME Tracker, which gives them the ability to chart and print out a record of their completed CME programs.

The CME program was co-authored by David Deaton, M.D., clinical assistant professor of surgery, University of Maryland-Baltimore and attending physician, Department of Surgery, Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, Md., and Frank Lederle, M.D., professor, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine.

On completion of the CME program, primary care and family physicians will be able to recognize patients who are at risk for AAA, screen patients appropriately for AAA in the primary care setting, learn the latest research supporting thresholds for intervention and outline recent advances in surgical techniques for AAA.

One such advance is a less invasive approach called endovascular repair. It is associated with a lower morbidity than repair by open surgery. Surgical approaches require a large incision through the abdominal cavity. Patients who choose the open surgical repair typically require at least one week in the hospital, often with two to three days in an intensive care unit, and several months of home convalescence to fully recuperate. Endovascular repair is a newer option for many patients and is a minimally invasive procedure that involves small incisions to two arteries in the groin. Patients who elect endovascular repair often experience shorter hospital stays, and benefit from less blood loss and lower cardiac and respiratory complications.

Guidant Corporation manufactures and markets the ANCURE® System for the endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the ANCURE System in September 1999, making this method for endovascular repair available to hospitals throughout the U.S.

Treatment with the ANCURE System starts with the insertion of the delivery catheter containing the implant into one of the arteries in the groin. Once inside the patient''s body, the ANCURE device''s unique attachment mechanism secures the implant to the vessel wall. This attachment mechanism, combined with ANCURE's woven polyester body, is designed to allow the implant to adapt to changes that occur over time in the length and shape of the aorta, while maintaining the implant''s original position within this high blood flow and pressure artery. Additional data and product information about the ANCURE System can be obtained on the Guidant website.

A global leader in the medical technology industry, Guidant Corporation provides innovative, minimally invasive and cost-effective products and services for the treatment of cardiovascular and vascular disease.

Medscape, (NASDAQ: MDLI), delivers clinical data and up-to-the-minute information to healthcare professionals and consumers at the time decisions are made. In so doing, the company plans to have a positive impact on the cost, efficiency, safety, and outcomes of health care. For general information, please visit their website.

As of June 30, Medscape and CBS HealthWatch had more than 2.4 million registered members worldwide, including over 440,000 registered as physicians and 1.2 million as allied health professionals. Medscape's digital health record applications and services are used every day as an integral part of the practice of medicine at hundreds of practice sites. More than 13 million patients now have records that are in digital form, and managed with Medscape's applications.