REACH Registry Highlights That Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) Suffer High Rates of Heart Attack, Stroke, Hospitalization,...( - New analyses presented in Europe ...),Health

- New analyses presented in Europe for the first time underscores REACH

implications for individuals with leg artery blockages

- Findings suggest the need for earlier, more aggressive therapeutic

intervention

VIENNA, Austria, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- New analyses from the REACH Registry presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2007 underscore the REACH Registry 1-year results first published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in March 2007. Outpatients with atherothrombosis have a surprisingly high risk of death or major cardiovascular illness, especially in the over 25 million patients internationally who have peripheral arterial disease (PAD), or atherothrombosis in the leg arteries.

Researchers evaluated the data from the Registry, which represents the largest international population with PAD ever studied. Patients with PAD suffer very high rates of heart attack, stroke or death, and very high rates of hospitalization. These data again highlight that establishing the PAD diagnosis identifies a very high risk which is known to improve when the diagnosis is linked to guideline-mandated risk reduction therapies. Lead author Dr. Alan T. Hirsch, professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health; and director of the Minneapolis Heart Institute's vascular medicine program at Abbott Northwestern's Vascular Center in Minneapolis, Minn., presented the results today.

Dr. Hirsch noted, "PAD has long been known to represent a form of artery disease that carries a high risk. The international REACH Registry demonstrates that this cardiovascular risk in patients with PAD remains remarkable in every nation, and is undoubtedly associated with a high personal, family, community, and public health cost. One in three individuals with PAD in office practice face a short-term chance of dying, having a heart attack or stroke or
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