Advance PTX drug-eluting balloon by Cook Medical was used during a live demonstration at a German hospital.

The Advance PTX drug-eluting balloon by Cook Medical, Bloomington, Ind.,was part of a clinical trial during one of the live case demonstrations at the ISET 2009 International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy. The demonstration was transmitted from the Heart Center Leipzig/Park Hospital in Leipzig, Germany. The drug-eluting balloon is one of the first to be coated with paclitaxel, an antiproliferative drug for reducing the risk of arterial restenosis following angioplasty in coronary disease patients. Cook also makes Zilver PTX Drug-eluting stents, currently in clinical trials. For more on stents, see Medical Design’s Designer’s Guide to Stents.

Cook also introduced its Approach CTO (chronic total occlusions) microwires (.014-in). The wires are intended for crossing CTOs and tight lesions in the peripheral arteries, and are part of the company’s leg-therapy initiative for treating peripheral arterial disease in the legs.