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US health technology assessment finds no benefit from pulmonary artery catheters 15 September 2008 Deltex Medical Group plc ("Deltex Medical"), the UK's leading haemodynamic monitoring company and global leader in oesophageal Doppler monitoring ('ODM'), notes the publication in the USA of a health technology assessment evaluating the evidence in the benefits and harms of pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) use in critical care settings including major surgery. The report was prepared by the Tufts Medical Center Evidence-based Practice Center under contract to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and commissioned by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the taxpayer funded part of the US healthcare system. Although dated 28 March 2008, the report has only recently been made generally available at www1.cms.hhs.gov/mcd/viewtechassess.asp?from2=viewtechassess.asp&where=index&tid=55& The report addresses primarily the use of PAC in the CMS population of US patients over the age of 65 and concludes that: "The available evidence does not consider many special circumstances where there may be reason to suppose that PAC is of value. However, the evidence does support the conclusion that in patients for whom PAC use is not deemed absolutely necessary, the routine use of PAC does not improve long-term clinical outcomes. At the same time, PAC use imposes uncommon, but identifiable, risks of adverse events. Physicians should be educated about the risks and benefits of PAC-directed therapy to allow for judicious decisions about its use on an individual basis." Deltex Medical's Chief Executive, Andy Hill commented: "Unlike in the UK, where use of PAC has fallen dramatically in the last few years, accounting for some part of the CardioQ™-ODM's considerable growth, PAC use in the USA remains very high, with most estimates suggesting between one and two million uses a year. Although not yet clear how they might react to this report, it is hard to see how the bodies which pay for healthcare in the USA will wish to continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to support a technology which appears ineffective at best. This represents a tremendous market opportunity for Deltex. All clinical trials on ODM have shown benefit. ODM has never caused a patient an adverse event and, as previously announced, ODM was the subject of a highly positive health technology assessment in 2007 which was also commissioned by CMS. The number of patients for whom CMS deemed ODM both reasonable and necessary is estimated to be at least two or three times higher than even the highest estimate of US PAC use. For further information, please contact: Deltex Medical Group plc 01243 774 837 Gavin Anderson & Company 020 7554 1400 Charles Stanley Securities 020 7149 6000
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