Ambulatory AF Burden Monitor helps cardiac patients.
Press Release Summary:
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) burden statistical package, available on ambulatory cardiac monitor, accurately assesses severity of patient's AF over extended period. It uses beat-to-beat independent and concurrent analysis of rate, rhythm, morphology, and p-wave abnormalities to automatically capture symptomatic and asymptomatic AF episodes. Patients can wear discreet monitor for days or weeks, before and after AF treatment, giving their physician true AF burden picture.
Original Press Release:
Medicomp Inc. Announces Industry First Ambulatory Atrial Fibrillation Burden Monitoring Service for Cardiac Patients
DENVER, May 9 -- Medicomp Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of United Therapeutics Corporation, announced today that it will introduce the first-ever Atrial Fibrillation (AF) burden statistical package available on an ambulatory cardiac monitor at Heart Rhythm 2007, the Heart Rhythm Society's 28th Annual Scientific Sessions in Denver, Colorado. Atrial fibrillation is an epidemic that affects approximately 5.1 million people in the United States alone. Individuals who have AF face an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and sudden cardiac death. There are a variety of ways AF can be treated to reduce these risks and increase a patient's quality of life, but until now physicians have had no way to accurately assess the severity of a patient's AF over an extended period.
Medicomp's proprietary and patented technology uses beat-to-beat independent and concurrent analysis of rate, rhythm, morphology and p-wave abnormalities to accurately capture atrial fibrillation. The algorithm is so sophisticated it does not require any input from the patient; both symptomatic and asymptomatic AF episodes are automatically captured. Patients can wear the discreet monitor for days or weeks during their daily lives, before and after AF treatment giving their physician a true AF burden picture that has never before been available.
"AF burden is a statistical calculation representing the percent of time a patient's heart is in atrial fibrillation, and is quickly becoming the gold standard for assessing AF patients. Given that new and improved medical, surgical, and catheter treatment modalities for AF are being introduced, we focused our development efforts on designing a technology that can properly standardize the measurement of treatment success," said Dan Balda, MD, President of Medicomp.
"Until now, we had to rely on patient symptoms or short-term Holter-type monitoring to determine if the patient was having paroxysms of atrial fibrillation. Even when we were fortunate to capture this arrhythmia we had no way to accurately quantify its duration and frequency," said Carl Pepine, MD, past President of the ACC, Professor and Director, Cardiovascular Medicine, University of FL. "Thanks to this breakthrough technology, more thorough and accurate surveillance is now possible, and this should translate to better patient outcomes."
Medicomp's AF Burden monitor is in final clinical evaluations and is expected to be available for widespread adoption in the summer of 2007. Medicomp plans to make this ground-breaking technology available to any physician currently treating patients suffering from atrial fibrillation through its cardiac monitoring service. Medicomp is exhibiting at booth 861 during Heart Rhythm 2007.
About Heart Rhythm 2007
Heart Rhythm 2007 is the most comprehensive educational program for heart rhythm professionals, featuring over 200 educational sections and more than 130 innovative products and services. This year, the meeting will open with the Afib Summit, a two-day intensive summit on atrial fibrillation featuring world-renowned experts. The Heart Rhythm Society's Annual Scientific Sessions have become the must-attend event of the year, allowing the exchange of new vital ideas and information among colleagues from every corner of the globe.
About Medicomp Inc.
Founded in Melbourne Florida in 1981, Medicomp specializes in providing proprietary cardiac telemedicine services throughout the United States, including 30-day Event Monitoring, Holter Monitoring, and Pacemaker Follow- ups. For more information, visit www.medicompinc.com.
United Therapeutics is a biotechnology company which focuses on the development and commercialization of unique products for patients with chronic and life-threatening cardiovascular, cancer, and infectious diseases. For more information, visit www.unither.com.
CONTACT: Tony Balda, CCT, Medicomp Inc., +1-321-676-0010 x 2020, or tbalda@medicompinc.com
