The Clinical Impact of Long‐Term ECG Recording

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Abstract
Patients (150) referred for long-term (L) ECG recording at a university hospital were monitored for 12 h or more. The referring physicians'' patient records were studied 12 mo. or more after monitoring to establish if and how LECG affected patient management. Patients (17) were treated with permanent pacemakers and 13 with antiarrhythmic drugs as a direct result of LECG. Thirteen patients who experienced symptoms with concomitant cardiac arrhythmia at the time of recording did not require treatment. In 17 patients who experienced symptoms without concomitant arrhythmia during monitoring, cardiac arrhythmia was ruled out as the cause of the symptoms. In 9 more patients, LECG contributed valuable clinical information (which could not be obtained by other diagnostic methods) to the referring physician. LECG affected the referring physician''s management of the patients in 69 cases (46%).