Boston Scientific Announces Start of Enrollment in SYNTAX Trial

Boston Scientific has begun enrollment in its clinical trial known as SYNTAX, which will compare the performance of drug-eluting stents with cardiac surgery in the most complex patient subsets: those with coronary artery disease in all three coronary arteries, in the left main coronary artery, or both.

This randomized, controlled clinical trial is designed to compare 12-month outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention using the company's Taxus Express2 paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system with coronary artery bypass graft treatment. SYNTAX is a multicenter, prospective trial that will involve more than 4,200 patients at up to 90 sites in Europe and the U.S.

The primary endpoint is the 12-month major adverse cardiac and cerebral event rate, which includes death, myocardial infarction, repeat revascularization and stroke.