The study enrollment was completed in several European centers of excellence with Prof. Jan Piek at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam as the Principal Investigator.
“We are extremely pleased by this milestone achievement for our breakthrough PICSO® System. Preclinical and clinical evidence suggest that PICSO provides significant benefits for patients, reducing not only their ST-segment elevation, but also tissue bleeding and infarct size. We now intend to expand the use of PICSO to additional centers throughout Germany and the UK to provide more patients access to this new therapy with CE-marked PICSO®,” said Ludwig Gold, COO & CFO of Miracor.
The Miracor PICSO® Impulse System is designed to treat acute heart attack STEMI patients to complement coronary angioplasty. ‘STEMI’ is an acronym meaning ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction. Heart attacks are divided into three types, according to their severity. A STEMI heart attack is the most severe type. In a STEMI heart attack, the coronary artery is completely blocked off by the blood clot, and as a result virtually all the heart muscle being supplied by the affected artery starts to become necrotic.
“We continue to expect that PICSO® will evolve into a standard of care that complements primary PCI procedures,” added Roger Kessels, Ph.D., Clinical Director at Miracor. “The fact is that despite a promising coronary angioplasty, impaired microcirculation still materializes in nearly one in three STEMI patients, and this frustrating incidence is directly connected to undesired outcomes for patients,” said Dr. Kessels. “Fortunately, PICSO® is designed to solve this life-threatening condition by dramatically amplifying the redistribution of blood into the blood-starved myocardium of severe heart attack patients. This benefit of PICSO® will certainly appeal to both clinicians and their patients.”
About Miracor Medical Systems GmbH
Based in Vienna, Austria, privately held Miracor is commercializing a unique and potentially disruptive technology, PICSO®, for acute coronary syndrome (ACS), heart failure, and cardiac surgery patients. The Company’s objective is to establish PICSO® as the standard of care for heart attack patients, thereby improving their quality of life. The Miracor PICSO® Impulse System is CE-marked and can be used during coronary revascularization procedures following myocardial infarction and other types of acute coronary syndromes to intermittently increase the pressure in the coronary venous system. The technology is for investigational use only in the United States at this time.