Current medical research and opinion
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Economic evaluation of prolonged and enhanced ECG Holter monitoring in acute ischemic stroke patients.
Objective: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major cause for recurrent stroke, has severe impact on a patient's health and imposes a high economic burden for society. Current guidelines recommend 24 h ECG monitoring (standard-of-care, SoC) to detect AF after stroke to reduce the risk of future events. However, paroxysmal AF (PAF) is difficult to detect within this period as it occurs infrequently and unpredictably. ⋯ Sensitivity analyses revealed robust results. Bootstrapping the results indicated moderate probability of cost-effectiveness. Conclusions: EPM yielded reduced not significantly different costs without affecting QoL and may be a useful strategy to detect PAF in acute ischemic stroke patients in time.