Reflecting the company’s new emphasis on the interventional sector, Abbott Laboratories’ (Abbott Park, Illinois) last month reported two major forward steps in the product development program of its Abbott Vascular (Redwood City, California) unit. In early April, Abbott Vascular reported that the first patient in the U.S. to be enrolled in its landmark clinical trial to assess the benefits of using stents in the neck arteries of likely stroke patients who have not shown symptoms of the disease was treated at the Hoag Heart and Vascular Institute at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian (Newport Beach, California).