NMT Medical (NASDAQ: NMTI) is an advanced medical technology company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary implant technologies that allow interventional cardiologists to treat structural heart disease through minimally invasive, catheter-based procedures. NMT Medical is currently investigating the potential connection between a common heart defect that allows a right to left shunt or flow of blood through a defect like a patent foramen ovale (PFO) and brain attacks such as embolic stroke, transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) and migraine headaches. A common right to left shunt can allow venous blood, unfiltered and unmanaged by the lungs, to enter the arterial circulation of the brain, possibly triggering a cerebral event or brain attack. More than 32,000 PFOs have been treated globally with NMT's minimally invasive, catheter-based implant technology. NMT Medical was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
Stroke Opportunity
PFO has been implicated as a possible risk factor of embolic stroke and TIA, for which current treatments include lifelong drug therapy or open heart surgery. NMT estimates the worldwide market for stroke- and TIA-related PFO closure procedures at 250,000 annually.
