2nd Total Occlusion Congress was held at Istanbul Polat Hotel on October 10th 2009.
Alvimedica’s Invader CTO balloon can dilate totally clogged, calcified and rigid lesions. This low profile balloon catheter is receiving a lot of attention from the medical world. Prof. Reifart from Frankfurt University used the Invader CTO balloon catheter during the case he performed at the congress.
The ‘2nd Chronic Total Occlusion Congress’ held at Polat Ronesans Hotel, Istanbul on October 10th. The congress was quite successful as approximately 250 invasive cardiologists attended. Prof. Tevfik Gurmen was the chairman of the scientific committee at the congress and Prof. E. Tsuchikane and Prof. N. Reifart made their contributions by performing live case studies.
Invader CTO is known as a “ CTO balloon with the lowest entry profile in the world”. With an entry profile of 0.0158”, this balloon can dilate rigid and totally clogged lesions. This device was developed by Turkish scientists. Prof. Nicolaus Reifart from Cardiology Institute at Frankfurt University said: “Half of the patients sent for a by-pass operation actually have dilatable coronaries. With the CTO balloon, developed by the Turkish scientists at Alvimedica, cardiologists will be able to dilate totally clogged and rigid lesions’.
Prof. Reifart attended the 2nd Total Occlusion Congress and used this balloon during a case study he performed.
Prof. Reifart -who established the CTO department at Europe Cardiology Society-, stressed the advantages of this method as: “You save the patient from being treated with by-pass
surgery, especially when you dilate the problematic vein on well-chosen patients. The major reason in 50% of the patients told “we cannot do anything about it” and sent to have by-pass surgery is that it was impossible to penetrate these rigid and totally clogged veins. Yet, it is quite easy to penetrate these veins with the balloon catheters designed especially for the CTO cases. You actually improve the heart’s condition by returning that vein into a living one. In this way, the heart restores its health to its previous, young condition.”
The rate of clogged coronaries increase while moving towards the northern countries of the world
Alvimedica CEO Mr. Cem Bozkurt stressed: “The Invader CTO catheter developed at their R&D facilities in Turkey has been well accepted from South America to China and from Japan to Russia. Prof. Reifart also added, while he was visiting many countries abroad: “I have practiced CTO on more than 2500 patients. As we go up to the northern countries, we come across veins that are more rigid and more clogged. Turkish patients that immigrate to Germany have softer vein structures at the beginning, but in time their veins become stiffer if they stay in the country for long periods. Diet and an inactive life style have a huge impact on the development of this disease”.
