Cardiac Pathways Corp. Installs Its Innovative Mapping and Ablation Products At Top Texas Heart Hospital.

Business/Technology Editors & Health/Medical Writers

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 12, 2000

Heart Hospital of Austin Physician Impressed with Products'

Efficiency, Ease of Use

Cardiac Pathways Corporation, a leader in state-of-the-art 3D cardiac mapping and ablation technology (NASDAQ: CPWY), today announced it has installed its innovative Chilli(R) Cooled Ablation Catheters and 3.1 software for its Realtime Position Management(TM) (RPM) Tracking System in a top Texas hospital specializing in cardiac care.

An electrophysiologist affiliated with the Heart Hospital of Austin recently performed a catheter ablation procedure on a patient who presented with a supraventricular tachycardia arrhythmia.

"The ultrasound transducer helped me in localizing the source of the arrhythmia," said Dr. David J. Kessler, an electrophysiologist on staff at the Heart Hospital of Austin. "Furthermore, the (RPM) system provided me with the reassurance due to its three dimensional view that I would not damage the vital structure known as the HIS bundle during the catheter ablation procedure."

Kessler said several features found in the enhanced version of the RPM Tracking System now make it even easier to find a tachycardia and ablate it.

"The system allows you to do polychromatic isochronal mapping in that it helps you find a visually attractive display of the heart wall," he said. "Not only is it a major advantage in that you can precisely localize the origin of the arrhythmia, but more importantly the system lets you return to a previous ablation or mapped location with precision."

The system can be used with standard diagnostic catheters to display and process intracardiac electrograms. When used with Cardiac Pathways' line of RPM navigation and ablation catheters, the system provides three-dimensional graphic displays that track real-time catheter positions and closely associate all electrograms from these catheters with 3D locations. With this association, activation times for up to six electrogram signals can be collected and placed on a deformable heart model that is representative of heart wall positions derived from catheter positions.

The Heart Hospital of Austin is the latest in a growing list of top cardiac hospitals using Cardiac Pathways products. Among the others are the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, and hospitals in the Midwest, South and West of the United States, as well as several sites in Germany and the Netherlands.

About Cardiac Pathways

Cardiac Pathways develops, manufactures and markets minimally invasive systems to diagnose and treat cardiac tachyarrhythmias (abnormally rapid heart rhythms). The company is a pioneer and leader in the development of complete integrated mapping and ablation systems for the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disturbances.

About Heart Hospital of Austin

The Heart Hospital of Austin is a patient focused care facility specializing in the fight against cardiovascular disease. The 140,000 square foot hospital was designed with Central Texas' leading cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons. The hospital houses 58 private patient rooms, three surgery rooms and four cardiac catheterization laboratories, including one of the nation's most technologically advanced electrophysiology suites.

Additional services available in the hospital include a full service emergency department, monthly heart disease risk assessments, and the HeartSaver CT scanner.

Statements included in this release that are not historical or current are "forward-looking statements" made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. The risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the Company's ability to gain market acceptance of the Company's products, the Company's ability to successfully obtain regulatory clearance or approvals to market its products, the ability of the Company to cost effectively manufacture and distribute products in commercial quantities, whether the RPM Tracking System and Chillirpm cooled ablation catheter will be commercially adopted by physicians, whether RPM technology complements existing and emerging treatment modalities and the Company's ability to effectively compete in the field of electrophysiology against its competitors, many of which have substantially greater financial and other resources.