October 8, 2009 – Boston Scientific Corp. this week announced its exclusive sponsorship and first enrollments of the MADIT-RIT clinical trial, which will determine the best device programming strategy to minimize unnecessary therapy in patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) and have no history of cardiac arrest.
The three previous landmark trials, MADIT, MADIT II and MADIT-CRT, each were conducted under the leadership of principal investigator Arthur J. Moss, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Rochester. The MADIT-RIT trial is a prospective, randomized study that will enroll 1,500 patients at approximately 75 centers globally.
"Clinical science has proved time and again that ICDs are highly effective in reducing death due to arrhythmias in high-risk cardiac patients," said Dr. Moss. "However, some patients receive unnecessary therapy, partly due to the programming of these devices at implant. MADIT-RIT will study the effects of programming on the occurrence of unnecessary therapy in these patients."
The first enrollments in this worldwide trial occurred last month in Graz, Austria at the Medizinische Universitatsklinik Graz (Burkert M. Pieske, M.D., and Daniel Scherr, M.D.); Basel, Switzerland at the Universitatsspital Basel (Beat Schaer, M.D., and Christian Sticherling, M.D.); Detroit, Mich., at the St. John Hospital and Medical Center (Luis Pires, M.D.); and Little Rock, Ark., at Arkansas Cardiology (Steven Greer, M.D.).
For more information: www.bostonscientific.com