New Analyzing Method Enhances Stress Test Data

A new method for analyzing cardiac stress testing data can show whether patients are more than 10 times as likely to die of cardiovascular causes, including a fatal heart attack.

A new method of analyzing cardiac stress testing data has been developed by Cardiac Science (Bothwell, WA, USA) and researched in collaboration with Stanford University Medical Center (California, USA) and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (California, USA). This new method extracts significant prognostic information from cardiac stress test data. Patients in the test population with abnormal heart rate variability, when combined with an abnormal Duke Treadmill Score, were found to be more than 10 times as likely to experience cardiovascular death (CVD). However, when using the Duke Treadmill Score alone, the current "gold standard” for assessing cardiovascular risk, these patients were only identified as being three to four times more likely to experience CVD. The findings were announced at the American College of Cardiology's 55th Annual Scientific Session in Atlanta (Georgia, USA) in March 2006.

"These exciting results were developed through a substantial study population of nearly 2,000 patients with 70 deaths occurring from cardiovascular causes over the five-year follow-up,” said Dr. Victor Froelicher, professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and director of the [electrocardiogram] ECG and exercise laboratories at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System. "We are excited about the potential to extend the value of cardiac stress testing, already recognized as a gold standard in the identification of coronary artery disease, into important new diagnostic dimensions.”




Related Links:
Cardiac Science Corporation
Stanford University Medical Center
Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System