New Data Support Use of iRhythm's ZIO® Service to Identify Cardiac Arrhythmias in Stroke and TIA Patients

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- iRhythm Technologies, Inc., a healthcare information services company, today announced that new study data support the use of its ZIO Service to help identify underlying cardiac arrhythmias in patients who have had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). The ZIO Service enables long-term continuous monitoring – using a noninvasive, small, wearable patch – to detect sporadic heart rhythm disturbances, including atrial fibrillation (AF), which is associated with an increased risk of stroke. The new findings were presented in an abstract Wednesday at the International Stroke Conference 2014 in San Diego, Calif.

"Physicians need to know if stroke or TIA patients have an underlying cardiac arrhythmia, which may have caused their neurological event, as this will impact treatment to help prevent a recurrence," said Maarten Lansberg, M.D., Ph.D., study author and assistant professor of neurology and neurology sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center. "Current cardiac monitoring options are limited in their ability to capture arrhythmias, and can be difficult for patients to use or tolerate. Our findings showed that the ZIO Patch was worn by stroke and TIA patients for long periods of time, and that it identified a significant number of arrhythmia events that would have been missed by traditional Holter monitors, due to their shorter wear times."

For the study, Stanford researchers analyzed data for 1,171 patients who wore the ZIO Patch to detect potential heart arrhythmias following a stroke or TIA. They found that patients wore the monitor for an average of 10.9 days, which is significantly longer than the 24-48 hours for which the traditional Holter monitor is typically worn. Symptomatic and asymptomatic AF was found in 4.8% of all reports and supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) – a broader category of atrial arrhythmias excluding AF – was present in 51% of records. Further, in 1 out of 7 patients (14.3%), the first case of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) occurred more than 48 hours after the start of monitoring, meaning it would have been missed by the Holter monitor.

"The ZIO Service is increasingly recognized as the new standard for monitoring patients with suspected arrhythmia," said Kevin King, iRhythm's president and chief executive officer. "This new study is important because it reinforces the value that the ZIO Service can bring to diagnosing underlying cardiac arrhythmias among stroke and TIA patients."

About the ZIO Service
The ZIO Service, comprised of the ZIO Patch, proprietary algorithms and the ZIO Report, is proven in multiple, peer-reviewed published studies to produce a higher diagnostic yield and to change patient management, compared to traditional approaches to ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring. The ZIO Patch is a noninvasive, water-resistant monitor that is easy to use and discrete to wear, and is worn for up to 14 days, prompting high patient compliance and a higher diagnostic yield. Proprietary algorithms analyze the vast amounts of captured heart beat data and a concise report is provided to the patient's physician. A recent study by Scripps Translational Science Institute, published in the American Journal of Medicine, found that the ZIO Service detected 57% more arrhythmia events compared to use of the Holter monitor, primarily due to prolonged monitoring. Since its commercial launch in 2011, the ZIO Service has been used with more than 200,000 patients at nearly 800 institutions nationwide. The ZIO Service is covered for most Medicare patients and by leading private payers nationwide, representing more than 170 million covered lives.

About iRhythm Technologies, Inc.
iRhythm is a privately held healthcare information services company that aspires to be the world leader in the management of cardiac arrhythmia information, a large and growing unmet clinical need. Its flagship solution, the ZIO Service, offers a proven approach to long-term continuous monitoring that enables diagnosis earlier in the clinical pathway to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. For more information, please visit www.irhythmtech.com.

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SOURCE iRhythm Technologies, Inc.