The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) have released updated performance measures for treating atrial fibrillation (AFib) or atrial flutter.
The update, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, was written by the ACA/AHA Task Force on Performance Measures.
“The ACC/AHA performance measurement sets serve as vehicles to accelerate translation of scientific evidence into clinical practice,” according to the document. “Measure sets developed by the ACC/AHA are intended to provide practitioners and institutions that deliver cardiovascular services with tools to measure the quality of care provided and identify opportunities for improvement.”
One key update is that the document clarifies the definition of valvular AFib. Valvular AFib, the authors emphasized, “is atrial fibrillation with either moderate or severe mitral stenosis or a mechanical heart valve.”
Another update involves the CHA2DS2-VASc risk score treatment thresholds associated with prescribed anticoagulation. This was modified to more accurately reflect the different stroke risks men and women with AFib or atrial flutter face on a daily basis.
The Heart Rhythm Society also contributed to the guidance. Click here to view it in full.
The ACC also shared a summary of the update on its website.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.