Eight-Year Data Show Long-Term ICD Survival Benefits

October 4, 2010 – Long-term data from a clinical trial studying the benefits of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy have been published in Circulation.

The MADIT II trial, sponsored by Boston Scientific, studied whether ICDs improve survival when compared to drug therapy alone in heart attack survivors with moderate impairment of the left ventricle. The new analysis looks at data after eight years and shows a sustainable mortality benefit over time, including:

• At eight years, one life is saved for every eight patients who receive an ICD. This represents a significant improvement over the two-year MADIT II data, which showed one life saved for every 17 patients.

• A 34 percent relative reduction in the risk of death for ICD patients at eight years.

“ICD therapy has proved effective in patients at risk of sudden cardiac death, and now the long-term MADIT II data show the life-saving benefits of these devices continue over time,” said Arthur J. Moss, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center and principal investigator of the MADIT, MADIT II and MADIT-CRT trials.

For more information: www.bostonscientific.com