Capabilities of long-term ECG monitoring in patients with myocardial infarction: the longer, the better?

Abstract

Background. In modern cardiology, 24-hour electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring has a high diagnostic value, but this method has a number of disadvantages in detecting episodes of unstable life-threatening arrhythmias. An increase in ECG monitoring duration allows expanding the possibilities of diagnosing life-threatening arrhythmias.Objective. To study the possibilities of long-term ECG monitoring (48–120 hours) in the detection of life-threatening arrhythmic events and parameters of myocardial electrical instability in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).Design and methods. The study included 71 STEMI patients. All patients from the 4th day of STEMI underwent multi-day ECG monitoring in 3 leads using a telemetric ECG recording complex with an average recording duration of 90.4 ± 30.2 hours. The analysis of episodes of myocardial ischemia, rhythm and conduction disturbances, turbulence and heart rate variability, late ventricular potentials and dispersion of the QT interval within 5 days was carried out.Results. Long-term monitoring allowed detecting high-grade ventricular extrasystoles. Analysis of episodes of myocardial ischemia in the postinfarction period revealed significant differences in the data of 120h-ECG monitoring in comparison with 24h-ECG. Multiday ECG monitoring made it possible to detect dysfunction of the autonomic regulation of cardiac activity in patients 2 times more often.Conclusion. A comprehensive assessment of the possibilities of multi-day ECG monitoring is a promising direction in predicting severe arrhythmias in patients in the postinfarction period.