Noninvasive Monitoring of Atrial Fibrillation and Informatics to Prevent Stroke

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Atrial fibrillation AF is the most common arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice affecting over million Americans and growing Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation PAF is a self terminating form of the cardiac arrhythmia that comprises between and of AF cases PAF may be a single episode or clusters of abnormal rhythms with variable duration PAF is often asymptomatic and in those patients with symptoms it has been estimated that for every symptomatic episode there are asymptomatic ones The self terminating nature of PAF leads to its frequent under diagnosis and consequent lack of use of established stroke prevention therapies The proposed informatics screening tool ties clinical data collected in the home directly to the clinician is completely unobtrusive and does not require surgical implantation This system could identify even brief minute episodes of atrial fibrillation and prevent significant morbidity and mortality by identifying individuals wo would benefit from therapy such as anticoagulation that significantly reduces stroke risk The innovation of this project is a practical solution for providing such screening A prototype device will be developed and evaluated in phase The device will enable a significant reduction in morbidity and mortality in the US population PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE More than Americans suffer from a stroke making it a leading cause of disability in the United States The cause remains unexplained after routine evaluation in to of cases These strokes without defined mechanisms are referred to as cryptogenic stroke