Ambulatory Monitor to Detect A-Fib and/or Sinus Brady

[HuskyHendrix]

I have been wearing an ambulatory monitor for 12 days with another 18 to go, as my physician suspects both atrial fib and possibly sinus brady.

I have two questions....1.) If episodes of arrythmia arise, from your experience, is the patient notified by the cardiology practice or primary care, or do they wait the entire 30 days and then present the final report? Would like to think if I've had episodes, they would let me know so treatment can begin, rather than dragging this out.

2.) If diagnosis is a-fib and medication is prescribed, how can they determine if there are further episodes or if the medication, defibrillation, ablation, etc. have worked? I have no physical symptoms, so would I have to continue to wear the houlter to determine if the selected treatment is successful? Thanks for your info.

[Hidden]

A holter monitor as used in the UK will record but not transmit data. No results are available until the report is signed off by the cardiologist.

Being symptomless you may be better served by an implanted recorder which does transmit. Look up Reveal Linq ICM.

Are you in the US?

[BobD Volunteer]

Firstly see oyster's reply re Holter monitor.

Secondly, any and all treatment for AF is only ever about improving quality of life.(QOL) if you are asymptomatic then major treatments such as ablation would not normally be considered as the risk may exceed the benefit. It may be that cardioversion may be tried in order to see if you feel any different back in NSR but if you really are asymptomatic this may be unlikely.

Control of heart rate to reduce the chance of damage such as enlargement of the atrium (dilated cardiomyopathy) seems a likely treatment plus anticoagulation if appropriate for stroke prevention. If you are suffering bradycardia then of course rate control would have to be carefully considered to prevent this being exacerbated. None of this is particularly time sensitive so it is highly likely that nothing will be done until your review appointment once the machine data has been examined and a report produced.

[HuskyHendrix in reply to BobD]

Thanks for the info, BobD. My holter is wireless and the company receives real time beat ECG info immediately. If any arrythymias detected, the cardiology practice is notified and then it's passed along to the GP. If there is a problem and it's detected, wouldn't it make sense to discontinue the holter, move forward with treatment and let me get off the monitor immediately?

[WallMatt in reply to HuskyHendrix]

I too had the kind of monitor you have, but I was aware of most of the episodes and had a diary to report that. Mine was only 7 days, but I was in afib 70% of that time and did have the ablation which corrected the problem. But it was the effect of the errant rhythms like feeling exhausted and out of breath, sometimes lightheaded that made the tests necessary Sounds like medication might be the answer - it just didn't correct my issues.