Risk of Ischemic Stroke in Patients Newly Diagnosed With Heart Failure: Focus on Patients Without Atrial Fibrillation
Journal of Cardiac Failure, March 26, 2018
A study team including several Analysis Group researchers has published the results of its work quantifying the incremental risk of ischemic stroke among patients newly diagnosed with heart failure but without atrial fibrillation (AF). Managing Principal Patrick Lefebvre, Vice President François Laliberté, and Associates Guillaume Germain and Dominique Lejeune contributed to the study published in the Journal of Cardiac Failure.
While heart failure is associated with an incremental risk of stroke, real-world data for patients who do not also exhibit AF are limited. The research team conducted a retrospective matched-cohort study of a large commercially and Medicare-insured population in the United States, using health care insurance claims from the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan Databases over a five-year period. Their analysis suggests that the presence of heart failure alone significantly contributes to the risk of stroke events, even in the absence of AF.
Because 70%–80% of patients with heart failure do not have AF, results from this study could aid ongoing efforts to identify patient populations suboptimally managed with the current standard of care.