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[Long-term ECG findings in children with healthy hearts]
Insights
Ambulatory ECG monitoring in 100 healthy children revealed common arrhythmias like sinus arrhythmia and wandering atrial pacemaker. This non-invasive 24-hour ECG monitoring offers diagnostic advantages over standard ECGs for pediatric arrhythmias.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Cardiology
- Electrophysiology
- Non-invasive Diagnostics
Context:
- Standard 12-lead ECGs may miss transient arrhythmias in children.
- Ambulatory ECG monitoring provides continuous cardiac rhythm assessment.
- Assessing normal pediatric cardiac electrophysiology is crucial for identifying abnormalities.
Purpose:
- To evaluate the utility of 24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring in healthy children.
- To characterize the prevalence of arrhythmias in a pediatric population.
- To compare the diagnostic yield of ambulatory ECG versus standard ECG.
Summary:
- 100 healthy children (6-16 years) underwent 24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring.
- Common findings included sinus arrhythmia (55%), wandering atrial pacemaker (47%), and junctional rhythm (20%).
- Ambulatory ECG monitoring demonstrated superior diagnostic capability for arrhythmias compared to standard ECG.
Impact:
- Highlights the high prevalence of benign arrhythmias in healthy children.
- Establishes ambulatory ECG monitoring as a valuable, non-invasive tool for pediatric arrhythmia diagnosis.
- Provides reference data for pediatric cardiac rhythm variations.
Abstract:
Ambulatory monitoring of the ecg was performed in 100 healthy children aged between 6 and 16 years for the period of 24 hours. On the same day all children studied had normal standard 12 lead ecg. The maximal heart rates ranged from 96 to 176 beats and minimal rates were 36 to 79 beats per minute. Sinus arrhythmia, what we called variation of frequency, was found very often (55 per cent). A wandering atrial pacemaker occurred in 47 per cent, while true intermitted junctional rhythm (duration more than 3 beats) was seen in 20 per cent. Premature atrial beats we have seen in 11 per cent, ventricular extrasystoles occurred in 20 per cent. Sinus bradycardias were found nearly almost during sleep with a rate under 40 beats per minute in one child and under 60 beats per minute in 49 per cent. We could not find sinuatrial blocks at all. AV-Blocks I0 and II0 were seen in two children, respectively. There was a clear advantage in the diagnostic of arrhythmias with using the 24-ecg-ambulatory monitoring in comparing with the standard ecg. Further advantage of this method is it's non invasive character.