WAUKESHA, WIS. and ST. PAUL, MINN., May 16, 2006 - GE Healthcare (NYSE: GE) and St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE: STJ) today announced a significant development and collaboration agreement that is intended to bring an integrated imaging and monitoring capability to cardiac catheterization labs around the world. Under terms of the agreement, GE and St. Jude Medical will develop a state-of-the-art cardiovascular ultrasound imaging system with fully integrated intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) imaging capabilities, intended for use in treating patients suffering from heart disease. Specifically, heart rhythm disease, which affects more than 8 million people globally, is a dysfunction in the electrical workings of a patient's heart, disturbing the heart's ability to beat normally and pump blood efficiently. The irregular electrical pulses pose significant risks such as heart muscle damage and stroke. The most common heart rhythm disorder, atrial fibrillation (AF), is an irregular and rapid rhythm where the heart's atria quiver instead of pumping efficiently. Each year, more than 380,000 new cases of AF are diagnosed worldwide.

For many AF patients, existing therapies including medications are ineffective or cause significant side effects, such as severe reduction in stamina. Ablation, in which an electrophysiologist eliminates the tissues in the heart that contribute to the disturbance of electrical flow, is an effective treatment with a success rate of 84 percent to 87 percent.* Because of its complexity and procedure time, ablation currently is performed less often than indicated, but better visualization technology is expected to make ablation procedures more accessible to patients.

Through the GE-St. Jude Medical collaboration, GE's ultrasound technology will be integrated with St. Jude Medical's catheter technology to provide physicians with real-time ultrasound imaging inside the heart, with direct visualization of both blood flow and other catheters used during cardiac procedures. The combined imaging technology is expected to give physicians high-quality diagnostic images of cardiac structures and blood flow throughout the entire heart, enhancing visibility and enabling more successful procedures.
"These new visualization tools are like having eyes inside the patient's heart, without actually having to open the chest," said Dr. Laurence M. Epstein, chief of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Service at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "The development of ICE technology has changed how we approach ablation procedures. We can visualize, in real time, the actual anatomic structures that we are targeting."

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