MEDICAL

Santa Ana-based Trimedyne, which manufactures laser catheters for opening clogged arteries, is helping America keep its chin up in world competition.

The March 28 issue of Fortune magazine lists balloon and laser angioplasty catheters as one of “100 Products That America Makes Best.” And little Trimedyne is listed along with C.R. Bard and Eli Lily, much larger firms that also manufacture the unusual devices.

Kim Doney, Trimedyne’s vice president of clinical affairs, pointed out that Bard and Lily make balloon catheters. Trimedyne, he said, is the only company in the world to have received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market a laser catheter in the United States. That approval was received in February, 1987.

Doney, saying the Fortune reference “is positive for us,” revealed another upbeat note. An FDA advisory panel of physicians last week recommended that the agency allow commercial sales of a second laser catheter that Trimedyne has been testing for the last four years. She said the FDA authorization follows the advice of the advisory panel “99.9% of the time.”

Doney said the first Trimedyne laser catheter approved by the FDA is used with balloon angioplasty treatments to open leg arteries. An advantage of the newer catheter, she said, is that it is expected to be approved for use alone in unclogging smaller blood vessels.

The favorable recommendation from the physician panel, Doney said, came at a fortunate time for Trimedyne. Next week, the company will show its new product at the convention of the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiologists in Orlando, Fla. And the following week, the firm will promote the catheter at a convention of the American College of Cardiologists in Atlanta.