(A QALY is combination of the quantity and quality of life it is calculated by adjusting the estimated number of life-years a patient is expected to gain from an intervention by the expected quality of life in those years.)
Presented at the International Stroke Conference, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) associated with the Reveal XT ICM in the study compared with the present standard-of-care, was well within the cost effectiveness range that the United Kingdom`s National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) considers acceptable based on an established cost effectiveness threshold, recently set by NICE to be £20,000 per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY). In addition, results from a new analysis (based on the AF detection rates found in the randomized CRYSTAL AF study) demonstrated for the first time that the use of long-term, continuous cardiac monitoring is a cost-effective method of detecting AF in cryptogenic stroke patients. Unlike conventional monitoring methods, the Reveal LINQ ICM automatically and continuously detects and records abnormal heart rhythms for up to three years.Ĭontinuous Cardiac Monitoring is Cost-Effective
Undiagnosed AF is believed to be responsible for a significant portion of cryptogenic strokes however, because AF often has no symptoms, it may not be detected by conventional monitoring techniques such as in-hospital monitoring, electrocardiography or traditional ambulatory cardiac monitors such as a Holter. "This suggests that AF may go undetected at an even greater rate and reinforces the benefits of long-term rhythm monitoring in cryptogenic stroke patients."Ītrial fibrillation is a common cardiac condition when the heart beats irregularly or rapidly patients with AF are five times more likely to have a stroke 1 due to small blood clots that may form in the heart and subsequently travel to the brain, obstructing a major blood vessel leading to an ischemic stroke.Įach year, approximately 692,000 Americans experience ischemic strokes (the most common type of stroke) cryptogenic strokes account for approximately 20 - 40 percent of ischemic strokes in the majority of modern stroke registries and databases.
What`s most exciting is that the detection of AF in real clinical practice exceeded that observed in the rigorously-controlled CRYSTAL AF study, allowing physicians to intervene even more with stroke preventive therapies," said study co-author Mark Richards, Ph.D., M.D., director of Arrhythmia Services at ProMedica Physicians Cardiology in Toledo, Ohio. "Unlike a randomized study, an observational study provides a practical way to study real-world clinical practice. At 182 days of monitoring (median), AF was detected in 147 patients, resulting in an AF detection rate of 12.2 percent, which was nominally 37 percent higher than the rate observed in CRYSTAL AF at the same time point. to determine whether atrial fibrillation (AF) could be detected using long-term, continuous cardiac monitoring (Reveal LINQ ICM). The observational real-world study, which is being presented at theAmerican Stroke Association`s International Stroke Conference 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, evaluated 1,247 cryptogenic stroke patients across the U.S.