The study, the Kaiser Permanente Real-World Heart Monitoring Strategy Evaluation Treatment Patterns and Health Metrics in Atrial Fibrillation (KP-RHYTHM) study, derived its findings from a retrospective cohort of 1,965 patients at two large integrated health care delivery systems who underwent up to 14 days of continuous ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring using Zio by iRhythm and were found to have paroxysmal (intermittent) AF. By using Zio by iRhythm to measure heart rhythm, the researchers were able to overcome limitations of previous studies which only looked at patients undergoing cardiac monitoring via invasive and expensive devices.
True AF burden™, as detected and measured by the Zio Service, gives physicians a comprehensive understanding of the amount of time a patient’s heart spends in AF over the extended monitoring period given Zio’s longer wear time and ability to bridge AF episodes that may be separated by noise or artifact. The results of the study show that the total burden of AF was the key indicating factor for stroke risk, as opposed to longer individual AF episodes with smaller overall burden. The results show that an AF burden lasting more than 11% of the total time their heart rhythm was monitored was found to be associated with a 3-fold increase in stroke risk, independent of other known risk factors in those patients.
There is an emerging recognition of the importance of AF burden as a potentially better measure of stroke risk, which is underscored by the recent AHA Scientific Statement ‘Atrial Fibrillation Burden: Moving Beyond Atrial Fibrillation as a Binary Entity’, said Dr. Elsayed Z. Soliman Professor and Director,
Strokes associated with AF tend to be more severe and are associated with higher mortality. By providing a deeper understanding of the link between burden of AF with risk of stroke, this study can have a direct impact on clinical decision making to prevent stroke, as it provides another stroke risk indicator that physicians can evaluate and share with their patients while discussing stroke prevention.
We are proud that Zio by iRhythm’s extended continuous cardiac monitoring capability coupled with our algorithm’s ability to bridge AF episodes allowed the researchers to develop new insights, as it gave the researchers a more comprehensive picture of AF burden than has been available previously, said
The research was led by Dr. Alan Go, Chief,
You can learn more about the study and AF burden at www.AFBurden.com.
About
iRhythm is a leading digital health care company redefining the way cardiac arrhythmias are clinically diagnosed. The company combines wearable biosensor devices worn for up to 14 days and cloud-based data analytics with powerful proprietary algorithms that distill data from millions of heartbeats into clinically actionable information. The company believes improvements in arrhythmia detection and characterization have the potential to change clinical management of patients.
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