St. Jude Medical, Inc. Chooses Rheometric Scientific Instruments for Material Characterization.

Business Editors

PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2002

Instruments Used for Characterization of Plastics

in Development of Cardiac Catheters

Rheometric Scientific (AMEX:RHM), a leading provider of computer-controlled materials test systems used to make physical property measurements, announced today that St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) has purchased its RDA(TM) III Rheometric Dynamic Analyzer and its RSA(TM) III Rheometric Solids Analyzer for material characterization of plastics used in its cardiac catheters. St. Jude Medical is a leader in the design and manufacture of high quality cardiovascular medical devices.

The RDA III and RSA III will be used to help ensure the consistent performance of St. Jude Medical's cardiac catheters, which must pass stringent internal quality control standards as well as those of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). St. Jude Medical's cardiac catheters are well regarded in the medical community because they utilize advanced design and materials technology for superior torque response. The analyzers are being used to ensure that the plastic in the catheter design meets or exceeds the standards for these products.

"Each of our products can directly impact someone's life, so it's essential that we provide high quality and outstanding clinical performance," said David W. Adinolfi, President of St. Jude Medical Daig Division. "We look for the same qualities in our analyzers. Rheometric Scientific provides us with products that allow us to maintain our high standards and help in the further development of all our products."

One of the primary reasons for the selection of the RSA III was its unique ability to analyze materials while immersed in a temperature-controlled saline solution, which simulates the human internal environment. This ability is extremely important given the sensitive conditions in which cardiac catheters are used. Typically, a catheter is threaded through a person's arterial system into the arteries or chambers of the heart where dye is injected in order to view the vessels/chambers and detect disease. Some St. Jude Medical products are also used to implant electrodes of a pacemaker, to administer a drug or to deliver devices that unblock narrowed coronary arteries.

"We are pleased that St. Jude Medical has chosen our instruments to further their research efforts," said Paul Mangano, President and COO at Rheometric Scientific. "Our analyzers provide a number of unique capabilities as well as the overall quality and performance demanded by such an intricate application."

The RSA III is a controlled-strain solids testing analyzer that offers a wide-range of geometries for testing films, fibers, foams, composites, ceramics and elastomers. The RSA III features patented force-rebalance transducer technology that ensures precise force measurement and phase angle resolution, which in turn produces accurate and repeatable measurements, even with high modulus materials. The advanced temperature control features of the RSA III, which include a patented forced-convection oven design, offer un-matched temperature accuracy and stability with minimal gradients.

The RDA III is a mechanical test system for evaluating viscoelastic properties such as steady shear viscosity, complex viscosity, complex modulus, elastic modulus, loss modulus, and damping of an extremely wide range of materials. Its wide dynamic range provides the capabilities essential for properly characterizing structured fluids such as emulsions, dispersions and gels, with equal facility as higher viscosity polymer melts and solids or composites.

About St. Jude Medical

St. Jude Medical, Inc. (http://www.sjm.com) is dedicated to the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative medical devices of the highest quality, offering physicians, patients and payers unmatched clinical performance and demonstrated economic value.

About Rheometric Scientific

Rheometric Scientific (AMEX:RHM), founded in 1970, develops, manufactures, markets and services rheological (a science dealing with the deformation and flow of matter) and thermal analysis instrument systems, on-line rheological sensors, and integrated systems for research, product development, process control and quality assurance, principally within the petrochemical industry, academic and government laboratories, and the food, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and semiconductor industries worldwide. The Company also markets and services a complete line of instruments for protein characterization and provides laboratory services for material and biomolecular characterization. With an installed base of over 10,000 instruments, RSI serves an international market of Fortune 1000 and other leading domestic and international corporations, independent research and academic institutions, and government agencies. Headquartered in Piscataway, New Jersey, the Company also maintains additional operations in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Japan. For more information about the Company, please call 800-735-8550, or visit us on the Web at www.rheosci.com.

This press release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to inherent uncertainties when discussing future results. Various factors could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those projected. The Company assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements or advise of changes in the assumptions and factors on which they are based. Specific risk factors may be detailed from time to time in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.