EKOS^® Introduces EndoWave™ 135cm -- Longer endovascular device can treat more patients

Bothell, Wash. – March 18, 2008 – EKOS^® Corporation, the leader in the emerging field of microsonic accelerated thrombolysis (MAT), today introduced a new endovascular device that is 29 centimeters (roughly 30 percent) longer.

MAT uses microsonic energy in combination with thrombolytic drugs to safely speed up the process of dissolving blood clots.  The 135cm offers more flexibility when selecting an access approach to a clot, particularly with taller patients.

“Physicians had requested development of a longer device and this opens the door to treating more people,” said Robert Hubert, EKOS^® president and CEO.  “Clots don’t always form in easy-to-reach places and the 135cm significantly increases access to distal sites.”

Hubert added there was user demand to be able to treat taller patients, as well as to get greater access beyond the knee.  Also, some physicians prefer taking different approaches – including brachial, which require a longer catheter. 

Michael Pont, M.D., who practices at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, was among the first physicians to use the new 135cm.  He noted, “I was very pleased with the longer device.  With one recent patient, it got me to a distal site I couldn’t have reached otherwise.”

The new 135cm can work in treatment zones of 12cm, 40cm and 50cm, allowing a physician to precisely match the treatment area with the size of the target vascular thrombus. Once the EKOS^® microsonic core is activated, each individual transducer within the zone delivers microsonic pressure waves that thin and loosen clot fibrin, while simultaneously driving fluids deeper into the clot.  Platinum radio-opaque marker bands are positioned at the distal and proximal end of the treatment zones, offering enhanced visibility and greater ease of catheter placement under fluoroscopy.

The revolutionary EndoWave^TM was introduced in 2005.  This is the first enhancement to the device since mid-2007 and the company plans to announce several other advancements this year. 

Physicians have performed nearly 8,000 cases with EndoWave^TM technology in the past three years at more than 200 major U.S. medical centers, including Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute (Miami), Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Emory University Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, The Methodist Hospital (Houston), University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, and Swedish Medical Center (Seattle).

For more information on the EndoWave 135 or EKOS^®’s complete line of endovascular devices, call 1-888-400-3567 or email CustomerService@EkosCorp.com.