An economic analysis of the FAME study, a trial evaluating the use of fractional flow reserve (FFR), has shown that routine FFR use can improve outcomes and save Germany an estimated 14 million EUR ($20.7 million U.S.) in 2011 and 2012. The results of the economic analysis of the St. Jude Medical PressureWire technology was presented at Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Kardiologie in Mannheim, Germany.

St. Paul, Minn.-based St. Jude Medical said that use of FFR technology can:

• Prevent 500 avoidable deaths, more than 1,300 MIs and 2,200 major adverse cardiac events (MACE) over a two-year period;
• Save the German healthcare system more than 3.3 million EUR ($4.9 million U.S.) in 2011 and more than 10.5 million ($15.6 million U.S.) in 2012;
• Reduce per-patient treatment costs for PCI by an average of EUR 333 ($494 U.S.); and
• Improve quality-adjusted life expectancy for Germany PCI patients.

The two-year FAME trial results were presented during the 2009 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference and evaluated FFR-guided PCI vs. angiography in PCI patients with multivessel coronary artery disease (CAD). The FAME study showed that use of FFR could potentially reduce healthcare costs by $2,000 per patient and reduce death or MI 34 percent after two years.

Uwe Siebert, MD, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, conducted the German cost analysis. St. Jude said that economic and healthcare impacts of the PressureWire technology in France, England, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium will be presented during a late-breaking clinical trial May 20 at EuroPCR.