ATS Medical Expands Open Pivot Heart Valve...( MINNEAPOLIS Aug. 22 /- ATS Medica...)

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ATS Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATSI), manufacturer and marketer of state-of-the-art cardiac surgery products and services, today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the company approval to begin marketing additional sizes of its line of ATS Open Pivot(R) Mechanical Heart Valves.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040202/ATSILOGO)

Michael Dale, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, noted, "We are pleased that our application to add the 25 and 35mm mitral valves to our US product offerings has been favorably reviewed and approved by FDA. Availability of these sizes will allow us to gain additional implants in accounts that we already serve, while improving our ability to compete for new business with a broader product offering. Extension of our mechanical valve product line has been an important objective in 2007. These approvals represent the first step towards meeting that goal, and we remain confident in our ability to bring additional planned mechanical valve product offerings to the US market."

About ATS Medical

ATS Medical, Inc. provides innovative products and services focused on cardiac surgery. The company, global in scope, is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. More than 135,000 ATS Open Pivot(R) Heart Valves, which utilize a unique pivot design resulting in exceptional performance and low risk profile, have been implanted in patients worldwide. The ATS 3F(R) brand encompasses multiple tissue heart valve product offerings at varying steps from market introductions to clinical trials to development projects that incor
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