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Edwards Lifesciences is a medical equipment company specializing in artificial heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring. It is mostly known for a transcatheter aortic heart valve made of bovine tissue within a collapsible stainless-steel stent, deployed via catheter.〔(Visualizing the Sapien Heart Valve ) American Society of Mechanical Engineers - ASME 〕 Their SAPIEN product is an FDA-approved device for percutaneous aortic valve replacement.〔(Edward Lifesciences Receives FDA Approval Expanding Access to Sapien Heart Valves ) ''The Wall Street Journal Online''〕 It is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol EW. == History == Edwards Lifesciences’ roots date to 1958, when Miles “Lowell” Edwards set out to build the first artificial heart. Edwards was a 60-year-old, recently retired engineer holding 63 patents in an array of industries, with an entrepreneurial spirit and a dream of helping patients with heart disease. His fascination with healing the heart was sparked in his teens, when he suffered two bouts of a disease called rheumatic fever, which can scar heart valves and eventually cause the heart to fail. With a background in hydraulics and fuel pump operations, Edwards believed the human heart could be mechanized. He presented the idea to Dr. Albert Starr, a young surgeon at the University of Oregon Medical School, who thought the idea was too complex. Instead, Starr encouraged Edwards to focus first on developing an artificial heart valve, for which there was an immediate need. After just two years, the first Starr-Edwards mitral valve was designed, developed, tested, and successfully placed in a patient. Newspapers around the world reported on what they termed a “miraculous” heart surgery. This innovation spawned a company, Edwards Laboratories, which set up shop in Santa Ana, California – not far from where Edwards Lifesciences’ corporate headquarters is located today. In 1966, Edwards Laboratories was purchased by American Hospital Supply Corporation and became American Edwards Laboratories. Then, in 1985, American Edwards was acquired by Baxter International Inc. In early 2000, the company was spun off as an independent, publicly held corporation and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “EW.”〔http://www.edwards.com/SharedPages/Pages/ourhistory.aspx〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edwards Lifesciences」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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