NATICK, Mass., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) today welcomed the publication of an analysis of long-term data from the MADIT II clinical trial in the current issue of Circulation.  The analysis demonstrates that the life-saving benefits of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy are sustained at eight years.  This is the first time that long-term data regarding the benefits of ICDs in a primary prevention population have been published in a peer-reviewed journal.  

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

• At eight years, one life is saved for every eight 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 34 percent relative reduction in the risk of death for ICD patients at eight years (p<0.001, unadjusted).

"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.

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.  

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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SOURCE Boston Scientific Corporation