Alsius Corporation Awarded Three-Year Agreement with HealthTrust Purcha...( IRVINE Calif. May 22 /- Alsius Co...),Health

IRVINE, Calif., May 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alsius Corporation (Nasdaq: ALUS), the worldwide leader in intravascular temperature management (IVTM(TM)) therapies for critically ill patients, was awarded a three-year contract with HealthTrust Purchasing Group, LP (HealthTrust) to provide intravascular temperature management products to the group purchasing organization's (GPO) extensive network of over 1,400 not-for-profit and for-profit acute care hospitals.

"This is the fourth contract we have been awarded by a major hospital GPO in the U.S.," said Bill Worthen, president and chief executive officer of Alsius. "We are pleased that our intravascular temperature management solution was chosen by HealthTrust and we look forward to working together to introduce our product offerings to its members."

About Alsius IVTM(TM)

Alsius IVTM consists of the CoolGard 3000(R), Thermogard(TM) and Thermogard XP(TM) systems and a family of single-use catheters, including the Cool Line(R), Icy(R), Fortius(R) and Quattro(TM) catheters. The catheters are inserted into a major vein through a patient's neck or groin, and circulate cool or warm saline in a closed-loop through balloons that surround the catheters. This approach decreases or increases core temperature from the inside of the body out toward the exterior, allowing for significantly more rapid control of a patient's core body temperature, with greater efficiency and precision, compared to conventional external temperature management products such as cooling and warming blankets and ice packs.

About Alsius Corporation

Alsius, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., is a medical device company that develops, manufactures and sells proprietary products to precisely contr
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