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Can 24 h of ambulatory ECG be used to triage patients to extended monitoring?

Johnson, Linda S. LU ; Måneheim, Alexandra LU ; Slusarczyk, Magdalena ; Grotek, Agnieszka ; Witkowska, Olga ; Bacevicius, Justinas ; Sörnmo, Leif LU ; Dziubinski, Marek ; Bhavnani, Sanjeev and Healey, Jeffrey S. , et al. (2023) In Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology 28(6).
Abstract

Background: Access to long-term ambulatory recording to detect atrial fibrillation (AF) is limited for economical and practical reasons. We aimed to determine whether 24 h ECG (24hECG) data can predict AF detection on extended cardiac monitoring. Methods: We included all US patients from 2020, aged 17–100 years, who were monitored for 2–30 days using the PocketECG device (MEDICALgorithmics), without AF ≥30 s on the first day (n = 18,220, mean age 64.4 years, 42.4% male). The population was randomly split into equal training and testing datasets. A Lasso model was used to predict AF episodes ≥30 s occurring on days 2–30. Results: The final model included maximum heart rate, number of premature atrial complexes (PACs), fastest rate during... (More)

Background: Access to long-term ambulatory recording to detect atrial fibrillation (AF) is limited for economical and practical reasons. We aimed to determine whether 24 h ECG (24hECG) data can predict AF detection on extended cardiac monitoring. Methods: We included all US patients from 2020, aged 17–100 years, who were monitored for 2–30 days using the PocketECG device (MEDICALgorithmics), without AF ≥30 s on the first day (n = 18,220, mean age 64.4 years, 42.4% male). The population was randomly split into equal training and testing datasets. A Lasso model was used to predict AF episodes ≥30 s occurring on days 2–30. Results: The final model included maximum heart rate, number of premature atrial complexes (PACs), fastest rate during PAC couplets and triplets, fastest rate during premature ventricular couplets and number of ventricular tachycardia runs ≥4 beats, and had good discrimination (ROC statistic 0.7497, 95% CI 0.7336–0.7659) in the testing dataset. Inclusion of age and sex did not improve discrimination. A model based only on age and sex had substantially poorer discrimination, ROC statistic 0.6542 (95% CI 0.6364–0.6720). The prevalence of observed AF in the testing dataset increased by quintile of predicted risk: 0.4% in Q1, 2.7% in Q2, 6.2% in Q3, 11.4% in Q4, and 15.9% in Q5. In Q1, the negative predictive value for AF was 99.6%. Conclusion: By using 24hECG data, long-term monitoring for AF can safely be avoided in 20% of an unselected patient population whereas an overall risk of 9% in the remaining 80% of the population warrants repeated or extended monitoring.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
ambulatory ECG, atrial fibrillation, prediction, risk score, stroke
in
Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology
volume
28
issue
6
article number
e13090
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • pmid:37803819
  • scopus:85173521834
ISSN
1082-720X
DOI
10.1111/anec.13090
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7a5f7c8f-ae28-4393-8555-8cb7ad12af55
date added to LUP
2023-12-19 14:39:34
date last changed
2024-04-18 00:57:14
@article{7a5f7c8f-ae28-4393-8555-8cb7ad12af55,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background: Access to long-term ambulatory recording to detect atrial fibrillation (AF) is limited for economical and practical reasons. We aimed to determine whether 24 h ECG (24hECG) data can predict AF detection on extended cardiac monitoring. Methods: We included all US patients from 2020, aged 17–100 years, who were monitored for 2–30 days using the PocketECG device (MEDICALgorithmics), without AF ≥30 s on the first day (n = 18,220, mean age 64.4 years, 42.4% male). The population was randomly split into equal training and testing datasets. A Lasso model was used to predict AF episodes ≥30 s occurring on days 2–30. Results: The final model included maximum heart rate, number of premature atrial complexes (PACs), fastest rate during PAC couplets and triplets, fastest rate during premature ventricular couplets and number of ventricular tachycardia runs ≥4 beats, and had good discrimination (ROC statistic 0.7497, 95% CI 0.7336–0.7659) in the testing dataset. Inclusion of age and sex did not improve discrimination. A model based only on age and sex had substantially poorer discrimination, ROC statistic 0.6542 (95% CI 0.6364–0.6720). The prevalence of observed AF in the testing dataset increased by quintile of predicted risk: 0.4% in Q1, 2.7% in Q2, 6.2% in Q3, 11.4% in Q4, and 15.9% in Q5. In Q1, the negative predictive value for AF was 99.6%. Conclusion: By using 24hECG data, long-term monitoring for AF can safely be avoided in 20% of an unselected patient population whereas an overall risk of 9% in the remaining 80% of the population warrants repeated or extended monitoring.</p>}},
  author       = {{Johnson, Linda S. and Måneheim, Alexandra and Slusarczyk, Magdalena and Grotek, Agnieszka and Witkowska, Olga and Bacevicius, Justinas and Sörnmo, Leif and Dziubinski, Marek and Bhavnani, Sanjeev and Healey, Jeffrey S. and Engström, Gunnar}},
  issn         = {{1082-720X}},
  keywords     = {{ambulatory ECG; atrial fibrillation; prediction; risk score; stroke}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{6}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology}},
  title        = {{Can 24 h of ambulatory ECG be used to triage patients to extended monitoring?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/anec.13090}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/anec.13090}},
  volume       = {{28}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}