Markers for silent atrial fibrillation in esophageal long-term electrocardiography

作者：Haeberlin Andreas^*; Lacheta Lucca; Niederhauser Thomas; Marisa Thanks; Wildhaber Reto A; Goette Josef; Jacomet Marcel; Seiler Jens; Fuhrer Juerg; Roten Laurent; Tanner Hildegard; Vogel Rolf

来源：Journal of Electrocardiology, 2016, 49(4): 496-503.

DOI：10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2016.03.006

• atrial fibrillation
• esophageal ECG
• long-term ECG
• surrogate markers

Purpose: Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) often remains undiagnosed. Long-term surface ECG is used for screening, but has limitations. Esophageal ECG (eECG) allows recording high quality atrial signals, which were used to identify markers for PAF.
Methods: In 50 patients (25 patients with PAF; 25 controls) an eECG and surface ECG was recorded simultaneously. Partially A-V blocked atrial runs (PBARs) were quantified, atrial signal duration in eECG was measured.
Results: eECG revealed 1.8%o of atrial premature beats in patients with known PAF to be PBARs with a median duration of 853 ms (interquartile range (IQR) 813-1836 ms) and a median atrial cycle length of 366 ms (IQR 282-432 ms). Even during a short recording duration of 2.1 h (IQR 1.2-17.2 h), PBARs occurred in 20% of PAF patients but not in controls (p = 0.05). Left atrial signal duration was predictive for PAF (72% sensitivity, 80% specificity).
Conclusions: eECG reveals partially blocked atrial runs and prolonged left atrial signal duration two novel surrogate markers for PAF.

• 出版日期2016-8