@article {Tavernier588, author = {Rene Tavernier and Michael Wolf and Vikas Kataria and Tom Phlips and Ruben Huys and Philippe Taghji and Ruan Louw and Raf Van Hoeyweghen and Yves Vandekerckhove and S{\'e}bastien Knecht and Mattias Duytschaever}, title = {Screening for atrial fibrillation in hospitalised geriatric patients}, volume = {104}, number = {7}, pages = {588--593}, year = {2018}, doi = {10.1136/heartjnl-2017-311981}, publisher = {BMJ Publishing Group Ltd}, abstract = {Objectives To assess whether daily short-term rhythm strip recordings on top of routine clinical care could increase the atrial fibrillation (AF) detection rate in the hospitalised elderly.Methods A hand-held device storing a bipolar ECG during 1 min was used for daily rhythm recording in hospitalised elderly patients.Results During 2 months, all patients admitted to the Department of Geriatric Medicine were screened (n=327). Five patients refused to participate in the study and 70 patients were unable to hold the device due to severe mental (n=46) or motor impairment (n=24). In the remaining 252 patients, 1582 recordings were successfully obtained after 1624 attempts with a median acquisition time of 1 min (min 1, max 9, IQR 1{\textendash}2 min). The rhythm strips were not reliable interpretable due to artefacts in three patients or an implantable cardiac pulse generator in another 28 patients. Detailed clinical information was available in 214/221 patients. Mean age was 84{\textpm}6 years. On top of 71 (33\%) patients with AF identified by routine clinical care (history, n=64 or de novo detected during current hospitalisation, n=7), review of all rhythm strips identified another 28 patients (13\%) with AF. All these patients had a CHA2DS2VASc score >=2. A contraindication for anticoagulation was present in only 8/28 (25\%) of identified patients.Conclusions On top of routine clinical care, daily short-term rhythm strip recordings identified another 13\% of elderly hospitalised patients with AF, leading to an overall prevalence of 46\% in hospitalised patients. This can have significant therapeutic implications with respect to initiation of anticoagulation.}, issn = {1355-6037}, URL = {https://heart.bmj.com/content/104/7/588}, eprint = {https://heart.bmj.com/content/104/7/588.full.pdf}, journal = {Heart} }