Sep 27, 2002
Guidant Announces Results of Key Study In Emerging Field of Heart Attack Prevention

Vulnerable Plaque Presents Significant Opportunity for Preventive Therapy

Indianapolis, Ind. - Guidant Corporation (NYSE and PCX: GDT), a world leader in the treatment of cardiac and vascular disease, today announced results of a study utilizing optical coherence tomography (OCT), a new coronary imaging technology that provides resolution 10 times greater than intravascular ultrasound, to examine highly detailed images of complex coronary lesions in patients with coronary artery disease. Results of the Guidant-supported study, which was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass., were presented by Dr. Ik-Kyung Jang today at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference in Washington, D.C.

The Massachusetts General Hospital OCT study found that OCT is able to successfully detect morphological characteristics of coronary lesions that have been associated with heart attack. The study measured these characteristics in 63 patients, including lipid pools and their thin fibrous caps that are susceptible to rupture, threatening the vessel and potentially leading to heart attack and death. The technology research program at Massachusetts General has also shown that OCT has promise for identifying the presence of macrophage cells that can inflame and weaken the thin fibrous caps.

Traditional medical knowledge holds that heart attacks are caused by arteries that become narrow over time, as atherosclerosis progresses within the artery wall. However, a newly established body of evidence indicates that as many as 85 percent of heart attacks are triggered by complex vulnerable lesions - vulnerable plaque - that suddenly rupture, causing blood to clot and occlude the artery. Research suggests that local therapies may be effective in treating vulnerable plaque as a component of optimal patient management.

"Guidant is dedicated to supporting research that may one day prevent many of the 1.1 million heart attacks Americans suffer each year," said John M. Capek, Ph.D., president, Vascular Intervention, Guidant Corporation. "Guidant is uniquely positioned for leadership in this emerging field, and this study brings us a step closer to being able to identify and treat vulnerable lesions before they pose a significant risk to the patient."

"We are pleased that this study has shown that optical coherence tomography successfully and reproducibly identifies unique characteristics of potentially vulnerable lesions. This information far surpasses what traditional angiography and IVUS can do, and it develops OCT to a point of readiness for natural history studies to link these features with clinical events," said Ik-Kyung Jang, M.D., Ph.D., interventional cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and principal investigator for the study. "We had no procedural complications using OCT, and the imaging process took only a few minutes."

The OCT system used in the study was developed at Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine, based at Massachusetts General Hospital within the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. The co-principal investigators of the study were Brett Bouma, Ph.D., and Guillermo Tearney, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professors at Massachusetts General Hospital conducting research at Wellman Laboratories.

Guidant Corporation pioneers lifesaving technology, giving an opportunity for better life today to millions of cardiac and vascular patients worldwide. The company, driven by a strong entrepreneurial culture of more than 10,000 employees, develops, manufactures and markets a broad array of products and services that enable less invasive care for some of life''s most threatening medical conditions. For more information visit www.guidant.com.