Refractory AnginaLooking over this article one can speculate with some accuracy the market potential of the Reducer as a more effective treatment of refractory angina RA:
Epidemiology
Precise estimates of the prevalence and incidence of RA are not available; however, several sources suggest that this is a large and growing problem.2,3Variations in definition and clinical heterogeneity of patients labelled with a diagnosis of RA significantly complicate such endeavours. Data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (2000–2001) suggest that ~500,000 Canadians are living with unresolved angina.4 The proportion of these patients with true RA is unknown.5 In the US, it is estimated that between 600,000 and 1.8 million patients have RA, with approximately 75,000 new cases diagnosed each year.5,6 In Europe, the annual incidence of RA is estimated at 30,000–50,000 new cases per year.1,7 Specific figures for the UK are lacking and further work to define the burden of RA in the UK population is needed. However, if the results shown by Williams et al., who found that 6.7 % of patients undergoing angiography in a contemporary cohort had no revascularisation option, are applied to the 247,363 angiograms performed in England in 2014, it can be estimated that ~16,500 new cases of RA may occur in England per year.3,8 Given improvements in CAD-related survival and increasing age of the population, together with an increasing appreciation from the contemporary Outcome of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Stent ThrombosIs Multicentre Study (OPTIMIST) registry that the long term prognosis of RA is not as bad as previously thought, the incidence and prevalence of RA is only set to rise.5,6,9,10Furthermore, it has also been recently shown by Povsic et al. that patients with RA use significant healthcare resources, undergoing frequent hospitalisations, and experience high healthcare costs (~US$10,185 over a 3-year period).11
ECR