New England Journal of Medicine Publishes Results from Boston Scientific's Landmark SYNTAX...( Data show comparable safety for compl...),Health

Data show comparable safety for complex patients treated with TAXUS(R) Express2(TM) Stents and bypass surgery

NATICK, Mass., Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) today welcomed the publication of results from its landmark SYNTAX(TM) trial in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. In the study, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using the TAXUS(R) Express2(TM) Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent System was compared to contemporary coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery in patients with the most complex coronary artery disease (CAD). Trial results at 12 months demonstrated no overall statistically significant differences between PCI and CABG in rates of death or myocardial infarction (heart attack), although PCI patients were more likely to require a repeat revascularization (mostly additional PCI) than were CABG patients.

The SYNTAX trial is the first randomized, controlled clinical trial to compare these two treatments in patients with left main disease and three-vessel disease. These patient groups are typically treated with CABG and represent a population with far more complex anatomy and advanced disease than those studied in prior drug-eluting stent (DES) clinical trials.

"SYNTAX has provided the medical community with critical information on the management of patients with advanced and complex CAD," said Ted Feldman, M.D., F.S.C.A.I., Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois, and a lead investigator of the trial. "While CABG may still be the preferred treatment in many patients with complicated disease, some patients may now be candidates for the less-invasive alternative offered by stents. These data will assist cardiologists in making treatment therapy decisions for th
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