title: The use of permanent pacemakers in the detection of cardiac arrhythmias.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare pacemaker telemetry with simultaneous Holter recordings in the diagnosis of atrial fibrillation and to evaluate the STOP-AF study telemetry criteria for the presence of atrial fibrillation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  18 consecutive patients enrolled in the STOP-AF study had simultaneous 24 h Holter recordings and down-loaded pacemaker telemetry. There was good agreement on heart rate, but the STOP-AF pacemaker criteria achieved only 57% sensitivity with 64% specificity for the presence of atrial fibrillation on Holter recording over 24 h. False-positives appeared to result from far-field sensing while false-negatives occurred with very short episodes of atrial fibrillation. The pacemaker's antitachycardia responses were not specific for the presence of atrial fibrillation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pacemaker telemetry is a potentially important source of data on cardiac arrhythmias. Further studies are required to define the limitations of these data in specific devices before they can be interpreted with confidence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. C.J.Plummer@ncl.ac.uk
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Plummer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gardener
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: McComb
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013686:Telemetry