TY - JOUR
T1 - Asymptomatic telephone ECG transmissions as an outpatient surveillance system of ventricular arrhythmias
T2 - Relationship to quantitative ambulatory ECG recordings
AU - Pratt, Craig M.
AU - Slymen, Donald J.
AU - Wierman, Ann M.
AU - Francis, Marilyn
AU - Thornton, Beth
AU - Young, James B.
AU - English, La Dean
AU - Stone, Cynthia L.
AU - Sarnoff, Stanley J.
AU - Roberts, Robert
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported in part by the Biomedical Research Support Grant, P-14, General Cliiical Research Center, The Methodist Hospital. Computational as&awe was provided by the CLINFO project funded by grant RR-00350, Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. Received for publication Sept. 9, 1986; accepted Sept. 17, 1936. Reprint requests: Craig M. Pratt, M.D., The Methodist Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, 6535 Fannin, MS FlOOl, Houston, TX 77030.
Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1987/1
Y1 - 1987/1
N2 - Although ambulatory ECG recordings provide quantitative information in the follow-up of patients with ventricular arrhythmias, they are performed infrequently, potentially missing serious arrhythmias in the unmonitored periods. Telephone ECG systems offer "real-time" ECG information, theoretically functioning as an arrhythmia surveillance system. Thus we incorporated frequent telephone ECG transmissions in two antiarrhythmic drug protocols. The first investigation was designed to show the relationship of telephone and ambulatory ECGs in patients with frequent ventricular tachycardia (VT). The second protocol selected patients with "nonlife-threatening" frequent premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) in whom a second placebo period was instituted to simulate the clinical situation of asymptomatic arrhythmia increase. In both drug trials there was a strong linear relationship between the log-transformed PVC counts of telephone ECG and concomitant PVC, couplet, and VT frequencies on ambulatory ECG. In the VT population, ≥ 1 PVC on telephone ECG reflected the presence of VT on ambulatory ECG (sensitivity 87%; specificity 77%). In the second study, telephone ECG transmissions with PVCs on three consecutive transmissions reflected the change from ≤ 10 PVCs/hour to ≥40 PVCs/hour on ambulatory ECG within 48 hours. These data support the concept that daily survelliance by means of telephone ECG provides arrhythmia information of qualitative clinical relevance.
AB - Although ambulatory ECG recordings provide quantitative information in the follow-up of patients with ventricular arrhythmias, they are performed infrequently, potentially missing serious arrhythmias in the unmonitored periods. Telephone ECG systems offer "real-time" ECG information, theoretically functioning as an arrhythmia surveillance system. Thus we incorporated frequent telephone ECG transmissions in two antiarrhythmic drug protocols. The first investigation was designed to show the relationship of telephone and ambulatory ECGs in patients with frequent ventricular tachycardia (VT). The second protocol selected patients with "nonlife-threatening" frequent premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) in whom a second placebo period was instituted to simulate the clinical situation of asymptomatic arrhythmia increase. In both drug trials there was a strong linear relationship between the log-transformed PVC counts of telephone ECG and concomitant PVC, couplet, and VT frequencies on ambulatory ECG. In the VT population, ≥ 1 PVC on telephone ECG reflected the presence of VT on ambulatory ECG (sensitivity 87%; specificity 77%). In the second study, telephone ECG transmissions with PVCs on three consecutive transmissions reflected the change from ≤ 10 PVCs/hour to ≥40 PVCs/hour on ambulatory ECG within 48 hours. These data support the concept that daily survelliance by means of telephone ECG provides arrhythmia information of qualitative clinical relevance.
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U2 - 10.1016/0002-8703(87)90002-0
DO - 10.1016/0002-8703(87)90002-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 3799424
AN - SCOPUS:0023132845
SN - 0002-8703
VL - 113
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - American Heart Journal
JF - American Heart Journal
IS - 1
ER -