Project Overview

Summary
Afib is a common, vastly under diagnosed condition. It is diagnosed by a telemetry strip, an ECG or clinically. There is a smartphone app that can diagnose it as well.

What woudl be even more useful is to develop a small device that could attach to a stethoscope that could be placed over the patient's chest and immedicately identify the rhythm.

It would have to be cheap, durable, accurate and easy to use.

Materials
telemetry device.
Display

References
BARCELONA, SPAIN — Incidentally detected atrial fibrillation (AF) in asymptomatic and ambulatory patients is associated with a significantly increased risk of stroke, MI, and all-cause mortality, but treating the detected arrhythmia with oral anticoagulants can significantly improve the prognosis of these patients, according to the results of a new study.

The new data suggest that it would be worthwhile to initiate a communitywide screening program to detect and treat AF in these asymptomatic patients. Such a screening program would even be cost-effective, say researchers.

Dr Ben Freedman (Concord Hospital, University of Sydney, Australia) told heartwire that the prevalence of AF worldwide is only going to increase with the aging baby boomers. "This epidemic is looming," he said. "In the next 10 or 20 years, we're going to see this enormous increase in atrial fibrillation. It's going to be asymptomatic and silent."

And unfortunately, the first manifestation of AF can be devastating. "Often, in patients, the first time you learn they have atrial fibrillation is when they present with a stroke," said Freedman. In fact, he said that AF is responsible for 20% to 33% of all strokes and that 20% to 45% of individuals who have an AF-related stroke did not have a prior diagnosis of AF.

Freedman, along with colleagues Dr Carlos Martinez (Institute for Epidemiology, Statistics, and Informatics, Frankfurt, Germany) and Dr Nicole Lowres (University of Sydney), published the new data on the prognosis of incidentally detected ambulatory AF in the August 2014 issue of Thrombosis and Haemostasis[1] and also presented more research on the topic here at this week's European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2014 Congress.

Team Picture

Contact Information

Team Members

• Daniel Grieshop - Team Leader
• Rocio Riillo - Communicator
• Justin Alt - BSAC
• Samuel Esch - BWIG
• Todd Le - BPAG

Advisor and Client

• Dr. Jeremy Rogers - Advisor
• Dr. Philip Bain - Client

Related Projects

• Spring 2016: Atrial Fibrillation Screener
• Fall 2015: Atrial Fibrillation Screener
• Spring 2015: Atrial Fibrillation Screener
• Fall 2014: Atrial Fibrillation Screener