CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A medical technology company headed by a Charleston doctor has developed a device that could help people with heart disease live longer and healthier lives.

Dr. Mark Bates, chief executive officer of Nexeon MedSystems and an interventional cardiologist at Charleston Area Medical Center, said the company has started a clinical trial in Germany on its "pro-healing" stent - a tiny metal device that keeps once-blocked coronary arteries open.

The first-of-its-kind stent is expected to revolutionize the treatment of cardiovascular disease, preventing scar-tissue buildup and blood clots in treated arteries.

The cobalt-alloy stents are coated with a solution to promote normal cell growth, and then placed in the artery as part of an angioplasty procedure.

"It's a protein-lined metal stent that the body thinks is normal artery," Bates said. "Instead of the body thinking it's a foreign body, it lines it with normal cells real quickly. It allows the body and arteries to function normally."

Bates has been working to develop the device for more than 10 years. Nexeon has teamed up with an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company called SurModics, which developed the natural coating that's placed on the metal stents.

"We're not stopping nature from doing its thing," said Bates, who heads Nexeon's offices in Charleston and Carlsbad, Calif. "We're helping nature. The body doesn't recognize [the stent] as something that's not supposed to be there."

About 65 percent of patients across the country now receive drug-releasing stents during cardiac catheterization procedures to open arteries. The remainder have bare-metal stents placed in their vessels.

Many patients with traditional stents later experience a re-narrowing of the artery.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A medical technology company headed by a Charleston doctor has developed a device that could help people with heart disease live longer and healthier lives.

Dr. Mark Bates, chief executive officer of Nexeon MedSystems and an interventional cardiologist at Charleston Area Medical Center, said the company has started a clinical trial in Germany on its "pro-healing" stent - a tiny metal device that keeps once-blocked coronary arteries open.

The first-of-its-kind stent is expected to revolutionize the treatment of cardiovascular disease, preventing scar-tissue buildup and blood clots in treated arteries.

The cobalt-alloy stents are coated with a solution to promote normal cell growth, and then placed in the artery as part of an angioplasty procedure.

"It's a protein-lined metal stent that the body thinks is normal artery," Bates said. "Instead of the body thinking it's a foreign body, it lines it with normal cells real quickly. It allows the body and arteries to function normally."

Bates has been working to develop the device for more than 10 years. Nexeon has teamed up with an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company called SurModics, which developed the natural coating that's placed on the metal stents.

"We're not stopping nature from doing its thing," said Bates, who heads Nexeon's offices in Charleston and Carlsbad, Calif. "We're helping nature. The body doesn't recognize [the stent] as something that's not supposed to be there."

About 65 percent of patients across the country now receive drug-releasing stents during cardiac catheterization procedures to open arteries. The remainder have bare-metal stents placed in their vessels.

Many patients with traditional stents later experience a re-narrowing of the artery.

Complications, such as blood clots, also can arise from drug-releasing stents, Bates said.

"It's a great solution for some patients, but it's not the perfect answer," Bates said. "The animal studies suggest [pro-healing stents] could potentially replace drug-eluting stents. That would be life changing for patients all over the world. They wouldn't have to worry about the blockages coming back and the artery clotting off."

Bates' device - called the PROTEX system - also might eliminate the need for heart patients to take expensive blood-thinning medications for a year or more.

"It's smaller than any other stent in the world," Bates said. "It's a very tiny device that can go into any vessel and treat it."

Bates said the device's clinical trial on humans, which is taking place in Siegburg, Germany, would last about 10 months. If successful, heart disease patients could start receiving the special stents in Europe by the end of 2009, and in the United States in about two years.

Bates started his company in 2004. It now employs 25 workers - 17 in California and eight in Charleston.

"This is a real passion for me," said Bates, who works at CAMC's Vascular Center for Excellence. "This company, hopefully, will bring jobs and funding to West Virginia."

Reach Eric Eyre at erice...@wvgazette.com or 348-4869.