title: Frequency of serious arrhythmias detected with ambulatory cardiac telemetry.
abstract: Ambulatory cardiac telemetry has been shown to be effective in establishing diagnoses in patients with suspected arrhythmias. A critical component of ambulatory telemetry is the immediate transfer of rhythm information to a central monitoring station without requiring patient action. The frequency with which potentially life-threatening events are detected using ambulatory telemetry has not previously been evaluated in a large patient population. All patients (n = 26,438) who underwent monitoring from April to December 2008 at a single service provider formed the patient population of this study. Arrhythmic events noted in these patients were defined as those requiring physician notification and those that represented potentially life-threatening arrhythmias. Of the 26,438 patients included in the study, 5,459 (21%) had arrhythmic events meeting physician notification criteria during a mean monitoring period of 21 days. Of these, 262 patients (1%) had arrhythmic events that could potentially be classified as emergent. These included 120 patients with wide complex tachycardia > or = 15 beats at > or = 120 beats/min, 100 patients with pauses > or = 6 seconds, and 42 patients with sustained heart rates <30 beats/min. An additional 704 patients (3%) had narrow complex tachycardia > or = 180 beats/min at rest. In conclusion, approximately 1% of patients who underwent ambulatory telemetry for routine clinical indications experienced life-threatening arrhythmic events over a 3-week monitoring period. Ambulatory cardiac telemetry could be potentially lifesaving in this group of patients.
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. a-kadish@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Alan H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Kadish
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Reiffel
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clauser
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prater
authors.forename: Marikay
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Menard
authors.forename: Harry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kopelman
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000379:methods*; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois / Q000453:epidemiology; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012737:Sex Factors; D013686:Telemetry / Q000379:methods*