:Influence of the duration of Holter monitoring on the detection of arrhythmia recurrences after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation: implications for patient follow-up.
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.
Dagres
Nikolaos
N
Kottkamp
Hans
H
Piorkowski
Christopher
C
Weis
Sebastian
S
Arya
Arash
A
Sommer
Philipp
P
Bode
Kerstin
K
Gerds-Li
Jin-Hong
JH
Kremastinos
Dimitrios Th
DT
Hindricks
Gerhard
G
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