FDA Approves Spectranetics' Laser Catheterfor Angioplasty Use

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Feb. 18 -- The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Spectranetics Corp.'s pre-market approval supplement to market a new line of single-use catheters for laser-based coronary angioplasty procedures. Spectranetics' new Vitesse Cos catheters are designed to achieve greater debulking in a blocked coronary artery than was possible using earlier generation catheters.
According to Spectranetics, laboratory tests showed the Vitesse Cos capable of improving debulking efficiency -- the dissolving of tissue blocking an artery -- by up to 62 percent over levels achieved with earlier generations of catheters. In developing the Vitesse Cos, the company used a proprietary engineering process to precisely bundle the optical fibers that conduct the laser's light pulses to the tissue blockage being treated.