Aged Care Insite Issue 92 | December 2015 - January 2016 | Page 12

news A heartbeat’s chance (Left to right) Dean of Sydney Nursing School Donna Waters, Dr Lis Neubeck and professor Robyn Gallagher. Team studying ways to prevent strokes by detecting atrial fibrillation wins grant to continue research. By Dallas Bastian S ydney Nursing School researchers have been awarded a $200,000 grant at the NSW Cardiovascular Research Network State of the Heart Showcase and Awards ceremony. The funding will allow the University of Sydney team to further research stroke prevention through early detection of atrial fibrillation – an irregular heart rhythm that can cause blood clots to form in the heart and travel to the brain – via technologies such as smartphones. “Widespread screening for asymptomatic atrial fibrillation could cost-effectively reduce strokes and their associated disability, and help save lives,” said University of Sydney and Heart Research Institute cardiology professor Ben Freedman, co-author of a recent article on the research in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “But this is not yet widely recommended in guidelines.” Research lead Dr Lis Neubeck said: “It’s been shown that strokes can be prevented through early identification of atrial fibrillation (AF) and up to two-thirds of people with AF don’t know they have it. We need a way to find people who have asymptomatic AF before they get a stroke, since treatments with blood-thinning medications are very effective in preventing strokes.” She said the simplest way of testing for atrial fibrillation was a pulse check, but added it is not a very sensitive method. “As an alternative, we’ve been investigating an electrocardiogram (ECG) device that attaches to a smartphone,” she explained. “In just 12 agedcareinsite.com.au 30 seconds, the hand-held device can check the ECG and tell if the rhythm is likely to be atrial fibrillation.” The research team previously showed how community pharmacists and practice nurses could use the ECG device to screen for atrial fibrillation. They will now turn their attention to the t