The Use of Pacemaker Diagnostics for Supporting the Anticoagulation Treatment Management

Abstract

In this work, the analysis of data on atrial fibrillation (AF) burden from dual chamber pacemakers is used for supporting the anticoagulation treatment management. The aim is to evaluate the benefit of basic diagnostic functions to support oral anticoagulation therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation. These patients have increased risk of thromboembolism. If patients have an implanted pacemaker, the device’s diagnostic features monitor the frequency and duration of atrial fibrillation episodes. This data can then be used for further decisions. Statistical data processing was performed on a group of 117 patients with an implanted dual chamber pacemaker. From these results, we evaluated the benefits of the algorithms. In the whole group, a trend was observed in increase of the AF burden between the two monitored periods. The increase of AF burden occurred in 17 patients, while the decrease occurred in 6 patients only. Using simple logic functions, the numbers of patients with different binary values of the presence of AF, the presence of oral anticoagulation therapy, the risk CHA2DS2-VASc score and the values of AF burden were determined. Thus, in the whole group of patients, the diagnostic functions of the implanted devices contributed to the change in oral anticoagulation therapy for 24% of patients.