These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Frequency of serious arrhythmias detected with ambulatory cardiac telemetry.
    Author: Kadish AH, Reiffel JA, Clauser J, Prater S, Menard M, Kopelman H.
    Journal: Am J Cardiol; 2010 May 01; 105(9):1313-6. PubMed ID: 20403485.
    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.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]