The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) released a draft research plan on screening for cardiovascular disease risk and atrial fibrillation with electrocardiography.
The plan is open for public comment until June 1 at 8:00 p.m. EDT. The USPSTF will read and evaluate the comments and use them to develop a systematic review of the evidence.
The USPSTF has proposed three questions to answer for screening for cardiovascular disease risk with electrocardiography:
- Does screening with resting or exercise ECG in asymptomatic adults lead to improved health outcomes compared with traditional cardiovascular disease risk factor assessment alone?
- Does adding screening with resting or exercise ECG to traditional cardiovascular disease risk factor assessment alone accurately reclassify persons into different risk groups?
- What are the potential harms of screening with resting or exercise ECG?
The USPSTF has also proposed five questions to answer for screening for atrial fibrillation with electrocardiography:
- Does screening for atrial fibrillation with ECG in asymptomatic adults who are 65 years and older lead to improved health outcomes?
- Does screening with ECG diagnose atrial fibrillation?
- What are the potential harms of screening with ECG?
- Does anticoagulation or antiplatelet therapy improve health outcomes in older adults with screen-detected atrial fibrillation?
- What are the harms of anticoagulation or antiplatelet therapy in treating older adults with screen-detected atrial fibrillation?
The USPSTF was created in 1984 as an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine. Recommendations from the USPSTF are not official positions of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.