Analysis indicates that one life is now saved for every six patients who receive an ICD

NATICK, Mass., May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) today announced that an analysis of long-term data from the MADIT II clinical study demonstrates that the life-saving benefits of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy remain sustainable at eight years. This is the first time long-term data have been presented regarding the life-saving benefits of ICDs in a primary prevention population. The analysis was presented during a late-breaking session at the Heart Rhythm Society Scientific Sessions in Boston.

The analysis shows a sustainable mortality benefit over time, including:

• At eight years, one life is saved for every six patients who receive an ICD. This represents a significant improvement over the two-year MADIT II data, which showed one life saved for every 17 patients.
• A 41 percent relative reduction in the risk of death for ICD patients at four years
• A 37 percent relative reduction in the risk of death for ICD patients at eight years

The MADIT II study, sponsored exclusively by Boston Scientific, was designed to determine whether ICDs improve survival when compared to drug therapy alone in heart attack survivors with moderate impairment of the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber. Initial results published in the New England Journal of Medicine (March 21, 2002) demonstrated that ICD therapy reduced the relative risk of death by 31 percent at 20 months follow-up.

"ICD therapy has proved effective in patients at risk of sudden cardiac death, and now the long-term MADIT II data show the life-saving benefits of these devices continue over time," said Arthur J. Moss, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Principal Investigator of the MADIT, MADIT II and MADIT-CRT trials.

"We are proud to have been the exclusive sponsor of landmark trials like MADIT II," said Fred Colen, President, Boston Scientific Cardiac Rhythm Management. "More than 80 percent of U.S. patients who receive an ICD or CRT-D were first indicated for this life-saving therapy through Boston Scientific clinical research."(1)

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: www.bostonscientific.com.

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(1) Trials include MADIT, MADIT II, CONTAK-CD, and COMPANION.

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SOURCE: Boston Scientific Corporation

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