KIRKLAND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 3, 2025--
Cardiac Dimensions®, a leader in transcatheter therapies for heart failure, announced today the appointment of William T. Abraham, MD, as Chief Medical Officer. A globally recognized expert in heart failure and device-based therapies, Dr. Abraham will help lead the company’s clinical and regulatory strategies as it advances toward U.S. regulatory approval and continues to expand European commercial sales of the Carillon Mitral Contour System®.
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Dr. Abraham most recently served as the Chief Medical Officer at V-Wave Ltd., where he led the U.S. pivotal trial and played a key role in advancing the company’s transcatheter interatrial shunt therapy, culminating in a significant heart failure-focused acquisition by Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Abraham is a College of Medicine Distinguished Professor at The Ohio State University, where he was the Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine for more than 15 years, and has published over 650 peer-reviewed papers. He is internationally known for his leadership in advancing heart failure treatments, including cardiac resynchronization therapy, remote hemodynamic monitoring, and transcatheter valve repair. Dr. Abraham has also served as national or global principal investigator on more than 50 multicenter trials, including important trials within the mitral valve space.
“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Abraham to the Cardiac Dimensions leadership team,” said Rick Wypych, President and CEO of Cardiac Dimensions. “Bill’s impact on the heart failure field is unmatched. His input and influence on the Carillon therapy will help drive the success and adoption of this much-needed therapy. In addition, his experience with large-scale clinical trials and regulatory pathways will be instrumental to the completion of our pivotal U.S. landmark study – The EMPOWER Trial.”
“I’ve spent my career working to bring novel and impactful therapies to people living with heart failure,” said Dr. Abraham. “What drew me to Cardiac Dimensions is the Carillon therapy’s unique position in the heart failure treatment paradigm. It offers a physiologically elegant approach to reducing mitral regurgitation, preserving future treatment options, and modifying the disease process itself. I’m particularly encouraged by the consistent data showing favorable atrial and ventricular remodeling, symptom improvement, and a excellent safety profile – even in patients with proportionate MR who are often excluded from other therapies.”
The Carillon Mitral Contour System has received CE Mark and is available for sale in Europe and other countries that recognize CE Mark.
About the CarillonMitral Contour System ®
The Carillon Mitral Contour System is a minimally invasive device designed to treat heart failure patients with functional mitral regurgitation by reshaping the mitral valve apparatus via the coronary sinus. It is commercially available in Europe, as well as other countries, and is currently being studied in the U.S. pivotal EMPOWER Trial.
About the EMPOWER Trial
The EMPOWER Trial is a prospective, randomized, sham-controlled pivotal study evaluating the safety and effectiveness of the Carillon Mitral Contour System® in heart failure patients with mild to severe functional mitral regurgitation. Designed to enroll up to 300 patients across leading U.S. and international centers, the trial aims to support FDA approval by demonstrating the Carillon therapy’s potential to improve symptoms, cardiac structure, and long-term outcomes in a broad heart failure population.
About Cardiac Dimensions ®
Cardiac Dimensions is committed to addressing the rapidly growing patient population suffering from heart failure with functional mitral regurgitation. With decades of clinical experience and thousands of patients treated worldwide, the company’s Carillon device is uniquely positioned as a durable therapy designed to treat early and late-stage patients, improve symptoms and reverse disease progression. Learn more at www.cardiacdimensions.com.
CAUTION: In the United States, the Carillon System is an investigational device, limited by federal law to investigational use.
Cardiac Dimensions, Carillon, and Carillon Mitral Contour System are registered trademarks of Cardiac Dimensions.
© 2025 Cardiac Dimensions. All rights reserved.
Carillon Mitral Contour System®
Dr. William T. Abraham, Chief Medical Officer at Cardiac Dimensions
HAMIMA, Syria (AP) — A trickle of civilians left a contested area east of Aleppo on Thursday after a warning by the Syrian military to evacuate ahead of an anticipated government military offensive against Kurdish-led forces.
Government officials and some residents who managed to get out said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces prevented people from leaving via the corridor designated by the military along the main road leading west from the town of Maskana through Deir Hafer to the town of Hamima.
The SDF denied the reports that they were blocking the evacuation.
In Hamima, ambulances and government officials were gathered beginning early in the morning waiting to receive the evacuees and take them to shelters, but few arrived.
Farhat Khorto, a member of the executive office of Aleppo Governorate who was waiting there, claimed that there were "nearly two hundred civilian cars and hundreds of people who wanted to leave” the Deir Hafer area but that they were prevented by the SDF. He said the SDF was warning residents they could face “sniping operations or booby-trapped explosives” along that route.
Some families said they got out of the evacuation zone by taking back roads or going part of the distance on foot.
“We tried to leave this morning, but the SDF prevented us. So we left on foot … we walked about seven to eight kilometers until we hit the main road, and there the civil defense took us and things were good then,” said Saleh al-Othman, who said he fled Deir Hafer with more than 50 relatives.
Yasser al-Hasno, also from Deir Hafer, said he and his family left via back roads because the main routes were closed and finally crossed a small river on foot to get out of the evacuation area.
Another Deir Hafer resident who crossed the river on foot, Ahmad al-Ali, said, “We only made it here by bribing people. They still have not allowed a single person to go through the main crossing."
Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the SDF, said the allegations that the group had prevented civilians from leaving were “baseless.” He suggested that government shelling was deterring residents from moving.
The SDF later issued a statement also denying that it had blocked civilians from fleeing. It said that “any displacement of civilians under threat of force by Damascus constitutes a war crime" and called on the international community to condemn it.
“Today, the people of Deir Hafer have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to their land and homes, and no party can deprive them of their right to remain there under military pressure,” it said.
The Syrian army’s announcement late Wednesday — which said civilians would be able to evacuate through the “humanitarian corridor” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday — appeared to signal plans for an offensive against the SDF in the area east of Aleppo. Already there have been limited exchanges of fire between the two sides.
Thursday evening, the military said it would extend the humanitarian corridor for another day.
The Syrian military called on the SDF and other armed groups to withdraw to the other side of the Euphrates River, to the east of the contested zone. The SDF controls large swaths of northeastern Syria east of the river.
The tensions in the Deir Hafer area come after several days of intense clashes last week in Aleppo city that ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters and government forces taking control of three contested neighborhoods.
The fighting broke out as negotiations have stalled between Damascus and the SDF over an agreement reached last March to integrate their forces and for the central government to take control of institutions including border crossings and oil fields in the northeast.
Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with Kurdish separatist insurgents in Turkey.
Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with the government of interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and has so far avoided publicly taking sides in the clashes in Aleppo.
Ilham Ahmed, head of foreign relations for the SDF-affiliated Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria, at a press conference Thursday said SDF officials were in contact with the United States and Turkey and had presented several initiatives for de-escalation. She said that claims by Damascus that the SDF had failed to implement the March agreement were false.
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Associated Press journalist Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria, contributed.
Members of the Syrian military police stand at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Members of the Syrian Civil Defense, stand next to their vehicles at a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A displaced Syrian family rides in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army next to a river in the village of Rasm Al-Abboud, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrian children and women ride in the back of a truck near a humanitarian crossing declared by the Syrian army in the village of Hamima, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
Displaced Syrians at a river crossing near the village of Jarirat al Imam, in the eastern Aleppo countryside, near the front line with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Deir Hafer, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
