Abbott Advances Its Revolutionary Fully Bioabsorbable Drug Eluting Stent With Initiation of Next Phase of Clin...( ABBOTT PARK Ill. Interventi...),Health

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced the initiation of the next phase of the ABSORB clinical trial to evaluate the safety and performance of the company's fully bioabsorbable drug eluting coronary stent. This second phase of the ABSORB clinical trial will enroll approximately 80 patients at 10 centers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and will incorporate device enhancements designed to improve deliverability and vessel support. The first patient was enrolled into the second stage of the ABSORB clinical trial at Onze Lieve Vrouw Ziekenhuis Hospital in Aalst, Belgium, by Bernard De Bruyne, M.D., Ph.D.

"Interventional cardiology has come a long way. It started with balloon angioplasty, which evolved into bare metal stents and then drug eluting metal stents were created," said Patrick W. Serruys, M.D., Ph.D., professor of interventional cardiology at the Thoraxcentre, Erasmus University Hospital, Rotterdam, and principal investigator of the ABSORB trial. "Now we have the fourth revolution in interventional cardiology technology, and patient outcomes from the first stage of ABSORB clearly show that bioabsorbable devices are the future of coronary artery disease treatment."

Results from the first stage of the ABSORB trial with 30 patients demonstrated that Abbott's bioabsorbable everolimus eluting stent successfully treated coronary artery disease, and that at two years, the treated vessel was able to expand and contract, without being restricted by a permanent implant - indicating that the device was absorbed. In addition, there were no cases of thrombosis (blood clot formation) out to two years of follow-up, and no new major adverse cardiac events (MACE) between six months and two years, with the bioabsorbable device demonstrat
'/>"/>