Rehorn M, Sacks NC, Emden MR, Healey B, Preib MT, Cyr PL, Pokorney SD. 2021. Prevalence and incidence of patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia in the United States. J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol.
Abstract
Background
Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) encompasses a range of heart rhythm disorders leading to rapid heart rates. By virtue of its episodic nature, diagnosing PSVT is difficult and estimating incidence and prevalence on a population level is challenging. The objective of this study was to estimate the incidence and prevalence of PSVT in the United States (US) in contemporary practice.
Methods and Results
An observational retrospective longitudinal study using claims, enrollment, and demographic data from the IBM MarketScan® Commercial Research database (age < 65) and the Medicare Limited Data Set (age ≥ 65) from 2008 to 2016. Patients with a PSVT diagnosis code (ICD-9: 427.0; ICD-10: I47.1) on ≥2 outpatient, ≥1 emergency room, or ≥1 inpatient visit were considered as having PSVT. Patients with atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter (AF/AFL) were excluded from the initial analysis given the potential for misclassification. Incidence was estimated by assessing diagnoses made during year 5 of continuous enrollment. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed by including patients with both PSVT and AF/AFL diagnoses. Period prevalence and incidence rate were estimated to be 332.9 (323.2–342.9) and 57.8 (52.8–63.3) per 100 000 individuals, respectively, when excluding patients with AF/AFL. Projected to the 2018 US Census, prevalence and incidence are 1.26 million (1.21–1.30 million) and 188,981 (172,891–206,943), respectively. Including patients with AF/AFL, the prevalence may increase to 479.7 (467.9–491.8) with an incidence of 93.4 (86.9–100.5) per 100 000 individuals or a prevalence of 2.06 million (2.01–2.12 million).
Conclusions
Approximately 1 in 300 people in the US had PSVT with the highest rates in older and female patients.