Sep 13, 2004
Guidant Receives Exclusive Expanded Indication for Heart Failure Treatment

National Registry Will Now Focus on Patient Identification and Treatment

Indianapolis, Ind. and St. Paul, Minn. - Guidant Corporation (NYSE:GDT) today announced that its ADVANCENTSM national registry to study left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) will focus on helping physicians quickly identify patients who could potentially benefit from advanced treatment options.

This next phase, the ADVANCENT ''in Practice'' edition, will track standard cardiac measurements such as blood pressure, cholesterol and ejection fraction. Registry data will now be shared with physicians nationwide to help spur treatment for traditionally underserved populations. Physicians and healthcare professionals attending the 8th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) today in Toronto, Canada, will have a unique opportunity to preview the software''s capabilities.

Patients with left ventricular dysfunction have weakened hearts, defined as an ejection fraction of 40 percent or less. Ejection fraction is a measurement of how efficiently a heart is pumping blood. Patients with healthy hearts have an ejection fraction of 50 percent or greater.

"This transition is a natural progression of the program, the registry has achieved what it was designed to'"it identified gaps to care and therapy related to gender, race and age among other factors," said Joseph Smith, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, chief medical officer, Cardiac Rhythm Management, Guidant Corporation. "Guidant thanks the ADVANCENT Scientific Steering Committee for its guidance and congratulates each and every center that took part in this important registry."

The ADVANCENT national registry''s purpose was to keep detailed records of patients'' medical history. The data from these records enabled physicians to analyze entire patient populations within their practice and identify gaps in care. For example, the registry found that women with the same indications for treatment as men received a cardiac resynchronization therapy system or implantable cardioverter defibrillator one-third of the time while men received therapy half of the time. More than 100 centers and 25,000 enrolled patients took part in the ADVANCENT registry.

"ADVANCENT ''in Practice'' edition will continue the forward momentum of the registry by actually helping to close identified gaps in care," said Reynolds Delgado, M.D., director, The Institute for Heart Failure Treatment and Research at The Texas Heart Institute and a member of the ADVANCENT Scientific Steering Committee. "Armed with registry data, we can begin affecting change in cardiology practices nationwide."