Medtronic welcomes research findings on CRT

Medtronic has welcomed the outcome of an economic study showing that cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) is cost-effective in mildly symptomatic heart failure patients.

Known as Resynchronization Reverses Remodeling in Systolic Left Ventricular Dysfunction (Reverse), the trial was sponsored by Medtronic and featured economic analysis from a subset of 262 European patients.

The participants were randomised to receive CRT therapy or have the treatment switched off for 24 months.

According to the study, CRT gained 14,278 euros (12,096 pounds) per Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY), compared with the commonly used European willingness-to-pay threshold of 33,000 euros per QALY gained.

"CRT not only helps keep less sick heart failure patients out of the hospital more, but it is also a more cost-effective treatment approach than many other therapeutic options," said Cecilia Linde of the Karolinska University in Sweden.

Senior vice-president of Medtronic Pat Mackin described heart failure as one of the "most challenging problems" currently facing healthcare professionals around the world.

He said data from the trial will help the company to make progress in expanding the use of CRT.

Medtronic recently reported global revenues of $3.903 billion (2.48 billion pounds) for the second quarter of fiscal year 2011, up from $3.838 billion for the corresponding period of 2010.