![\"American](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/American-Heart-Association-new-logo-480x230.jpg\" "\\"American"){kind=logo}
Dallas, TX<\/strong> – A shock from an implantable cardioverter defibrillator<\/a> (ICD) may trigger an increase in health care needs for many people, regardless whether the shock was medically necessary, according to a new study published in Circulation:<\/em> Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes<\/em>, an American Heart Association journal.<\/p>\nICDs save people from sudden cardiac death<\/a> by delivering a shock to restore a normal rhythm when the lower chambers of their heart, or ventricles, beat erratically.<\/p>\n Heart illustration with artery close up. (American Heart Association)<\/p><\/div>\n Inappropriate shocks occur with ICDs, most often when the device mistakes a different heart rhythm problem for ventricular arrhythmia\u2014abnormal heart rhythms that originate in the lower chambers of the heart.<\/p>\n \u201cICDs cannot assess patients the way a doctor can,\u201d said lead study author Mintu Turakhia, M.D., M.A.S., cardiac electrophysiologist and senior director of research and innovation at the Center for Digital Health at Stanford University in California. \u201cThe device doesn\u2019t know, for instance, if the patient is unconscious or has a pulse. We wanted to see what happens after a shock, in terms of care and cost, to help define the potential benefit of smarter ways to program these devices.\u201d<\/p>\n The authors analyzed the experience of 10,266 patients implanted with an ICD in the U.S. between 2008 and 2010 by linking data transmitted to the device manufacturer with the patients\u2019 healthcare records. During that time, 963 patients, average age 61, experienced 1,885 shocks. Thirty-eight percent of those shocks were determined to be inappropriate.<\/p>\n Researchers also found:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cObviously, shocks that save people\u2019s lives are a good thing, but they are also very painful, can be traumatic and often lead to more health care procedures and expenses,\u201d Turakhia said. \u201cThis is why strategies to make these ICDs more selective so that they deliver fewer inappropriate shocks is especially important. Fortunately, the industry has made many advancements in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n Turakhia added that newer programming strategies reduce the number of inappropriate shocks, even among older-generation ICDs. The devices can be programmed by clinicians to deliver fewer inappropriate shocks by waiting briefly to see if the ventricular arrhythmia resolves itself and by cautiously avoiding triggering shocks for heart rhythms with moderately fast rates.<\/p>\n \u201cThe quality of care is no longer just an issue of whether an ICD was implanted in appropriate patients but also whether it was programmed in the best way possible,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have the technology to do that today.\u201d<\/p>\n The findings may be limited as all patients had an ICD from the same manufacturer (Medtronic) and information about factors that may have biased results, including patient behavior and health status, was not available.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom this study, we cannot tell whether any patient received appropriate or inappropriate care \u2014 only whether they received an appropriate shock or not,\u201d Turakhia said. \u201cWe can say, however, that the costs associated with both kinds of shock are substantial and that optimal device programming that reduce shock events are likely to decrease healthcare costs and improve patient health.\u201d<\/p>\n Co-authors are Steven Zweibel, M.D.; Andrea L. Swain, M.B.A.; Sarah A. Mollenkopf, M.P.H.; and Matthew R. Reynolds, M.D., M.Sc.<\/p>\n Author disclosures are on the manuscript.<\/p>\n Medtronic Inc. funded the study.<\/p>\n Additional Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report Dallas, TX – A shock from an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) may trigger an increase in health care needs for many people, regardless whether the shock was medically necessary, according to a new study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. ICDs save […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[2538,5451,6774,4030,6196,4858,9643],"class_list":["post-12337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-american-heart-association","tag-california","tag-circulation","tag-dallas-tx","tag-implantable-cardioverter-defibrillator","tag-stanford-university","tag-sudden-cardiac-death"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12338,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12337\/revisions\/12338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Heart](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Heart-with-Artery-View-480x259.jpg\" "\\"Heart")
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