WORLD-CLASS CARDIAC ARRHYTHMIA MANAGEMENT

CONFRONTING THE BURDEN OF CARDIAC ARRHYTHMIAS

The global burden of cardiac arrhythmias is staggering. Patients with atrial tachycardias (ATs) and atrial fibrillation (AF) face an increased risk for stroke, dementia, heart failure and death,¹ and the number of patients with AF is expected to double in the next 40 years.² Ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) are even more serious. Sustained VT is fatal. Analysts estimate that annually almost 4 million people experience sudden cardiac death worldwide, with about half of those deaths attributed to VT.³

Arrhythmia management is multifaceted, requiring creative solutions that span the patient care continuum—from insight to therapy. Our arrhythmia management portfolios give you the options you need to precisely diagnose, treat and manage arrhythmias with versatility and efficacy. When it comes to understanding and managing cardiac arrhythmias, we are your partner for life.

LATEST TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE AND REDUCE MORTALITY RATES

At Abbott, we remain committed to developing effective, innovative technologies that help you treat and monitor AT and AF as well as VT and VF. Like you, we want to see permanent relief for patients all over the world who suffer from cardiac arrhythmias. In 2005, Abbott dedicated an entire business unit to creating curative therapies for the treatment of AF. Since that time, we have consistently invested 12 to 13 percent of our total revenue toward the research and development of cutting-edge technologies and clinical advancements across all therapy areas. 

We invest resources in transforming health care, and our investments have brought these advances:

• Contact force ablation to monitor the force applied at each ablation location and potentially avoid risks related to the application of too little or too much force^4,5,6
• Enabled navigation of devices on prerecorded X-ray images for the reduction of radiation dose⁷

REFERENCES

*Reduction in duration of fluoroscopy time is defined as reduction in duration of live X-ray. 
1. Estes, N. A., Sacco, R. L., Al-Khatib, S. M., Ellinor, P. T., Bezanson, J., Alonso, A. … Benjamin, E. J. (2011). American Heart Association atrial fibrillation research summit: A conference report from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 124, 363-372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0b013e318224b037

2. Sullivan, E., Braithwaite, S., Dietz, K., & Hickey, C. (2010). Health services utilization and medical costs among Medicare atrial-fibrillation patients. Avalere Health, 4, 2,7,9. http://www.avalerehealth.net/research/docs/Avalere-AFIB_Report-09212010.pdf

3. John, R. M., Tedrow, U. B., Koplan, B. A., Albert, C. M., Epstein, L. M., Sweeney, M.O., … Stevenson, W. G. (2012). Ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. The Lancet, 380(9852), 1520-1529. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61413-5

4. Kuck K. H., Reddy, V.Y., Schmidt, B., Natale, A., Neuzil, P. Saoudi, N., … Shah, D. C. (2012). A novel radiofrequency ablation catheter using contact force sensing: Toccata study. Heart Rhythm, 9(1), 18-23.

5. Reddy, V., Shah, D., Kautzner, J., Schmidt, B., Saoudi, N., Herrera, C., … Kuck, K. H. (2012). The relationship between contact force and clinical outcome during radiofrequency catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation in the TOCCATA study. Heart Rhythm, 9(11), 1789-1795.

6. Neuzil, P., Reddy, V., Kautzner, J., Petru, J. Wichterle, D., Shah, D., … Kuck, K. H. (2013). Electrical reconnection after pulmonary vein isolation is contingent on contact force during initial treatment: Results from the EFFICAS I Study. Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, 6(2), 327-333.

7. Rolf. S., Sommer, P., Gaspar, T., John, S., Hindricks, G., & Piorkowski, C. (2012). Ablation of atrial fibrillation using novel 4-dimensional catheter tracking within autoregistered left atrial angiograms. Circulation, Arrhythmia And Electrophysiology, 5, 684-690.