Abbott announced the European approval and launch of its Trek Coronary Dilatation Catheter for the treatment of coronary artery disease. The Trek system represents a new approach to balloon catheter design, and provides physicians with a high-performing option for treating challenging lesions and difficult-to-reach blockages. Abbott received CE Mark for the Trek system earlier this year.

"The Trek system has a more seamless, transitionless design that allows for successful navigation to hard-to-access lesions, which is an important factor in treating patients with complex anatomy. In contrast, the designs of many balloon catheter systems include more abrupt junction points that can create resistance while trying to access complex lesions," said Julinda Mehilli, director of Clinical Research and Data Coordinating, Intracoronary Stenting and Antithrombosis Research (ISAR) Center, German Heart Center in Munich. "With the Trek system, blockages may be crossed smoothly and reliably even in vessels that are tight and challenging; lesions which were previously thought to be some of the most challenging may now be reached."

The Trek family is a completely re-engineered line of balloon catheters, incorporating many advanced design and technology changes. The Trek system is available in two catheter designs, including the specialty catheter Mini-Trek for accessing smaller vessels. The Trek system is designed to be used by physicians to open up, or pre-dilate, a lesion before a stent is placed – a step which has been shown to improve patient outcomes when the stent is later expanded in the vessel.

"During the development stage, we brought together a talented group of engineers and challenged them to rethink every design aspect with the ultimate goal of creating a balloon dilatation catheter that would offer superior deliverability and performance. The result is Trek, which incorporates 10 new design changes for improved performance and represents a true leap forward in balloon dilatation catheter design," said Robert Hance, senior vice president, vascular, Abbott. "With Trek and Mini-Trek, we are able to offer two advanced balloon catheter systems designed to meet physicians' needs for accessing challenging anatomy to help improve patient outcomes."

Trek is available in 77 sizes and in a wide variety of diameters (from 1.2 mm to 5 mm) and lengths (from 6 mm to 30 mm). It currently is available on a rapid exchange delivery system, and Abbott plans to launch a high-pressure version called NC Trek later this year. The TREK dilatation catheter is the delivery platform for Abbott's future generations of stent technology.

Trek is currently an investigational device and is not available for sale in the United States.