Eleni Goulouti, Anna Lam, Nikolas Nozica, Elena Elchinova, Chrisoula Dernektsi, Felix Neugebauer, Mattia Branca, Helge Servatius, Fabian Noti, Andreas Haeberlin, Gregor Thalmann, Nikola Asenov Kozhuharov, Antonio Madaffari, Hildegard Tanner, Tobias Reichlin, Laurent Roten
BACKGROUND: Screening for atrial fibrillation (AF) may reveal incidental arrhythmias of relevance. The aim of this study was to describe incidental arrhythmias detected during screening for AF in the STAR-FIB (Predicting SilenT AtRial FIBrillation in Patients at High Thrombembolic Risk) cohort study. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the STAR-FIB cohort study, we screened hospitalized patients for AF with 3 repeat 7-day Holter ECGs. We analyzed all Holter ECGs for the presence of the following incidental arrhythmias: (1) sinus node dysfunction, defined as sinus pause of ≥3 seconds' duration; (2) second-degree (including Wenckebach) or higher-degree atrioventricular block (AVB); (3) sustained supraventricular tachycardia of ≥30 seconds' duration; and (4) sustained ventricular tachycardia of ≥30 seconds' duration...
February 13, 2024: Journal of the American Heart Association