More than 7 million people suffer from Atrial Fibrillation,
less than 2% have received curative Ablation therapy
Atrial Fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, or electrical disorder of the heart. The heartbeat is irregular and rapid and the heart muscle can be characterised as quivering, losing its effectiveness to pump blood through the circulatory system. This increases the risk of blood clots and stroke. The incidence of AF is directly related to age, with 1 in 25 people over 65 likely to suffer from AF.
Worldwide, there are believed to be at least 7 million AF sufferers. The cost implications for health systems are serious: ageing populations will see more patients requiring treatment, improved diagnosis tools will increase the demand for treatment,there is a significantly higher risk of stroke compared to normal population, and AF is an important cause for increased hospital stay.
The condition is currently managed by drug therapy, a market currently worth $8B.
Ablation therapy can cure this condition, using fine catheters introduced into the heart via veins located in the patients upper thigh, initially to locate the source of the arrhythmias, then to treat the disorder. The cardiac catheter market for all arrhythmias is expected to grow to $2Bn by 2016.
Currently less than 2% of AF sufferers have received Ablation therapy. In 2006, the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology released new treatment guidelines, which elevated Ablation therapy as a second-level treatment option, for Patients that have failed drug maintenance.
Ongoing studies confirm the effectiveness of Ablation therapy in successfully treating AF. The market for the advanced catheters used to diagnose and treat AF is growing approximately 20% per year, driven by what is deemed by some experts to be an AF epidemic .