title: :Influence of the duration of Holter monitoring on the detection of arrhythmia recurrences after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation: implications for patient follow-up.
abstract: We investigated the influence of Holter duration on the detection of recurrences after ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF). Two-hundred-and-fifteen patients underwent a 7-day Holter ECG at 6 months after catheter ablation. We analyzed the number of patients who had a recurrence within the first 24, 48, 72 h etc. up to the total of 7 days. During the complete 7-day recording, 30% had a recurrence. All Holter durations ≤5 days would have detected significantly less patients with recurrence than the complete 7-day recording. A 24-hour Holter would have detected 59%, a 48-hour Holter 67% and a 72-hour Holter 80% of patients with recurrences, whereas a 4-day recording would have detected 91% of the recurrences that were detected with the complete 7-day recording. In conclusion, a Holter duration of less than 4 days misses a great portion of recurrences, whereas a 4-day recording might offer a reasonable compromise.
authors.forename: Nikolaos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dagres
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kottkamp
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Piorkowski
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weis
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arya
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sommer
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bode
authors.forename: Jin-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Gerds-Li
authors.forename: Dimitrios Th
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Kremastinos
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hindricks
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000379:methods*; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence