Study Type
Interventional - Device
completed
Patients with known cardiovascular risk factors and left atrial enlargement, but without prior atrial fibrillation (AF) had a continuous ECG monitor implanted (St. Jude Medical Implantable Cardiac Monitor) to detect the incidence of sub-clinical AF and study the relationship between sub-clinical AF and left atrial volume and other potential predictors.
Patients were recruited from a variety of clinical settings (heart failure clinics, stroke clinics, diabetes clinics, pre-op and pre-catheterization clinics) and, in many cases, the implant can be done in conjunction with a planned surgery or procedure.
All patients were followed at one, three, six and nine months, and then underwent a final visit at 18 months of follow-up or after the last patient was followed for nine months (whichever came first).
Co-Principal Investigator on ASSET II was Marco Alings, of the Amphia Ziekenhuis, Breda, the Netherlands.
Study Design
Cohort study
NO. of Countries
2
NO. of Sites
25
NO. of Participants
273
Study Period
2012 - 2016
Sponsor
PHRI
Stuart Connolly
Stuart Connolly
Stuart Connolly is a Professor of Medicine at McMaster University and a cardiac electrophysiologist at Hamilton Health Sciences. He became a faculty member at McMaster University in 1983 and was awarded a full professorship in 1994. He was also appointed as the inaugural holder of the Salim Yusuf Chair in Cardiology at McMaster University.
He has published more than 270 scientific articles in the field, and is currently a member of the editorial boards for a number of prominent cardiology journals, including Heart, the American Heart Journal and the Journal of Pacing and Electrophysiology. His main research interests are focused on the evaluation of treatments for heart rhythm disorders. His academic career has been largely devoted to the design and execution of controlled clinical trials in this area.
He holds a Masters degree from Fordham University, New York, and an MD from McGill University in Montreal. He received his specialist training in cardiology at the University of Toronto and at Stanford University.
Jeff Healey
Senior Scientist
Jeff Healey
Senior Scientist
Jeff Healey is a Cardiologist/Electrophysiologist and Professor of Medicine at McMaster University. He is Yusuf Chair and Director of Cardiology at McMaster University. He is the chair of the Canadian Stroke Prevention and Intervention Network (CSPIN) and past chair of the Canadian Atrial Fibrillation guidelines committee. He is also on the steering committee of the international AF Screen organization.
Healey was the lead author of the ASSERT trial that demonstrated the increased stroke risk associated with sub-clinical atrial fibrillation (New England Journal of Medicine 2012), and the principal investigator of the ARTESIA trial, which demonstrated that anticoagulation with apixaban reduced the risk of stroke in patients with sub-clinical atrial fibrillation New England Journal of Medicine 2023). He is also the principal investigator of the LAAOS-4 trial, evaluating the role of left atrial appendage occlusion on top of NOAC therapy for prevention of stroke in high-risk individuals with atrial fibrillation.
St. Jude Medical (grant in aid)
completed
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