1. Diagnostic performance of an automatic blood pressure measurement device, Microlife WatchBP Home A, for atrial fibrillation screening in a real-world primary care setting.
- Author
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Chan PH, Wong CK, Pun L, Wong YF, Wong MM, Chu DW, and Siu CW
- Subjects
- Aged, Atrial Fibrillation epidemiology, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory instrumentation, Diabetes Mellitus epidemiology, Female, Guidelines as Topic, Heart Failure epidemiology, Hong Kong epidemiology, Humans, Hypertension epidemiology, Ischemic Attack, Transient epidemiology, Male, Predictive Value of Tests, Prevalence, Prospective Studies, Reference Standards, Sensitivity and Specificity, Stroke epidemiology, Atrial Fibrillation diagnosis, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory standards, Hypertension diagnosis, Primary Health Care, Sphygmomanometers statistics & numerical data
- Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of a UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-recommended automatic oscillometric blood pressure (BP) measurement device incorporated with an atrial fibrillation (AF) detection algorithm (Microlife WatchBP Home A) for real-world AF screening in a primary healthcare setting., Setting: Primary healthcare setting in Hong Kong., Interventions: This was a prospective AF screening study carried out between 1 September 2014 and 14 January 2015. The Microlife device was evaluated for AF detection and compared with a reference standard of lead-I ECG., Primary Outcome Measures: Diagnostic performance of Microlife for AF detection., Results: 5969 patients (mean age: 67.2±11.0 years; 53.9% female) were recruited. The mean CHA
2 DS2 -VASc ( C : congestive heart failure [1 point]; H : hypertension [1 point]; A2 : age 65-74 years [1 point] and age ≥75 years [2 points]; D : diabetes mellitus [1 point]; S : prior stroke or transient ischemic attack [2 points]; VA : vascular disease [1 point]; and Sc : sex category [female] [1 point])score was 2.8±1.3. AF was diagnosed in 72 patients (1.21%) and confirmed by a 12-lead ECG. The Microlife device correctly identified AF in 58 patients and produced 79 false-positives. The corresponding sensitivity and specificity for AF detection were 80.6% (95% CI 69.5 to 88.9) and 98.7% (95% CI 98.3 to 98.9), respectively. Among patients with a false-positive by the Microlife device, 30.4% had sinus rhythm, 35.4% had sinus arrhythmia and 29.1% exhibited premature atrial complexes. With the low prevalence of AF in this population, the positive and negative predictive values of Microlife device for AF detection were 42.4% (95% CI 34.0 to 51.2) and 99.8% (95% CI 99.6 to 99.9), respectively. The overall diagnostic performance of Microlife device to detect AF as determined by area under the curves was 0.90 (95% CI 0.89 to 0.90)., Conclusions: In the primary care setting, Microlife WatchBP Home was an effective means to screen for AF, with a reasonable sensitivity of 80.6% and a high negative predictive value of 99.8%, in addition to its routine function of BP measurement. In a younger patient population aged <65 years with a lower prevalence of AF, Microlife WatchBP Home A demonstrated a similar diagnostic accuracy., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)- Published
- 2017
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