Medtronic's Adaptive CRT Helps Fight Atrial Fibrillation - Analyst Blog

Medtronic, Inc. MDT reported new data from its Adaptive CRT trial exhibiting that patients who receive a cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D), along with the Medtronic-exclusive AdaptivCRT algorithm, have 61% lower risk of atrial fibrillation AF-related problems.

The study results were presented at Cardiostim/Ehra Europace 2014, World Congress in Electrophysiology and Cardiac Techniques. Data presented also revealed a 55% relative reduction in healthcare utilizations in patients receiving CRT-D devices with AdaptiveCRT, instead of the conventional biventricular pacing therapy.

Patients suffering from heart failure are more prone to develop AF, which not only raises mortality risk but also increased the individual's use of healthcare resources in the course of his lifetime.

According to previous data from this trial, heart failure patients who received the AdaptivCRT technology were found to have 46% lower risk of spending 48 consecutive hours or more in AF, compared to conventional CRT patients.

The analysis involving 476 patients further revealed that reduced healthcare costs were observed for those patients suffering from AF who were treated with the AdaptivCRT technology. Specific data supporting this fact were presented for the potential use of healthcare systems in the United States and Germany. The data showed healthcare cost savings of $630 per patient and €130 over 24 months for AF-related problems. It is hereby worth noting that the cost savings were a result of lesser hospitalizations.

In a separate development, data presented at Heart Rhythm 2014 showed that the AdaptiveCRT technology has reduced the rate of 30-day readmissions for heart failure patients by 50%. Moreover, 30-day readmissions for all-cause hospitalizations have also been lowered by more than 40%.

Medtronic is in talks to conduct a global study of 3,000 patients to evaluate the superiority of CRT with AdaptivCRT therapy in reducing heart failure events and mortality, compared to conventional bi-ventricular pacing.

Benefits of the AdaptiveCRT algorithm, as validated by previous findings from the Adaptive CRT Trial, are enumerated below:

•    AdaptivCRT increases CRT response rate by 12%;
•    Patients with AdaptivCRT have a 21% reduced rate of Heart Failure   hospitalization and a reduced risk of death;
•    Patients with the AdaptivCRT technology have a 46% reduced risk of AF.

Medtronic currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked medical product stocks that warrant a look are Cardica Inc. CRDC, ICU Medical, Inc. ICUI and NeuroMetrix Inc. NURO. All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).