title: Atrial fibrillation detected by external loop recording for seven days or two-day simultaneous Holter recording: A comparison in patients with ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack.
abstract: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac cause of ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (IS/TIA).
  
  
  
  To compare the diagnostic value of seven-day external loop recording (ELR) and two-day Holter recording for detecting AF after IS/TIA.
  
  
  
  191 IS/TIA patients without AF history. Endpoint was AF >30s. We started two-day Holter recording and seven-day ELR simultaneously.
  
  
  
  Seven-day ELR and two-day Holter recording detected the same three AF patients. ELR detected another six patients with AF adjudicated by cardiologists, four detections after Holter (3 vs. 7, p=0.125) and two false-positive detections during Holter. Seven-day ELR automatically classified 50/191 patients (26%) with AF, but only 7/50 (14%) were confirmed as AF by cardiologists.
  
  
  
  Seven-day ELR did not detect significantly more patients with AF than two-day Holter recording. 86% of patients with ELR-classified AF were false positives, indicating a poor performance of the automatic AF detection algorithm used.
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Research Unit, Department of Medicine, Regional Hospital West Jutland, Gl. Landevej 61, Herning, Denmark. Electronic address: michhers@rm.dk.
authors.forename: Michala Herskind
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Sejr
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Aarhus University Hospital. Electronic address: jenniels@rm.dk.
authors.forename: Jens Cosedis
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital. Electronic address: dortdam@rm.dk.
authors.forename: Dorte
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Damgaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Regional Hospital West Jutland. Electronic address: Birgitte.Forsom.Sandal@vest.rm.dk.
authors.forename: Birgitte Forsom
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Sandal
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Research Unit, Department of Medicine, Regional Hospital West Jutland. Electronic address: Ole.May@vest.rm.dk.
authors.forename: Ole
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: May
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015984:Causality; D015897:Comorbidity; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*
keywords: Atrial fibrillation; External loop recorder; Holter monitor recorder; Ischemic stroke; Transient ischemic attack; Validation