Combined Use of BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring and Predefined Anticoagulation to Reduce Stroke Risk

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter (AFL) are common cardiac arrhythmias associated with an increased incidence of stroke in patients with additional risk factors. Oral Anticoagulation (OAC) reduces stroke risk, but because these arrhythmias are frequently intermittent and asymptomatic, start of OAC therapy is often delayed until electrocardiographic documentation is obtained. Technological advances in implanted dual-chamber cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) devices allow early detection and real time verification of AF/AFL with intracardiac electrograms (IEGM) automatically transmitted to the clinicians. Such remote diagnostic capability might be particularly relevant in patients with asymptomatic AF by allowing timely treatment. Compared to conventional periodic, (e.g., quarterly) office device evaluation, daily remote monitoring may prove superior for diagnosis of AF and prophylactic treatment of thromboembolism. The start, stop and restart of OAC based on a predefined atrial rhythm-guided strategy in conjunction with a standard risk-stratification scheme could lead to better clinical outcomes compared with conventional clinical care. The study is designed to demonstrate a risk reduction of both thromboembolism proximate to episodes of documented AF/AFL and bleeding potentiated by chronic OAC in the absence of AF. Verification of this premise would impact the clinical practice, providing evidence to physicians for the use of HM to guide OAC in patients with AF/AFL. The results of this study should demonstrate the clinical value of wireless remote surveillance of the cardiac rhythm and may define the critical threshold of AF/AFL burden warranting OAC or antiarrhythmic drug therapy in patients at risk of stroke