Atrial Fibrillation is an abnormal heart rhythm that can occur after coronary heart bypass graft operations. How often this happens and what other problems occur for a person after these operations needs to be better understood. This study uses a device called the Reveal XT, a small device that records heart rhythms to track a patient's heart rhythms after the bypass surgery. The device is implanted at the time the bypass graft is made. The information that is gathered for this study will help physicians to provide better treatment and follow-up of the patients under their care.
We will utilize the Reveal XT implantable loop recorder (ILR) in order to monitor the incidence of AF in our post-CABG patients. The Reveal XT has been shown to be superior in comparison to the more commonly used sporadic ECGs.6 Unfortunately, the occurrences of arrhythmias tend to be "unpredictable" and often paroxysmal. Observers are unlikely to have the opportunity to record ECGs at the time of event until it is too late. The ability of the Reveal XT to continuously record ECGs over long periods of time has made it a superior and powerful diagnostic tool in patients with arrhythmias and arrhythmia related complications. This was evident in the large multicenter PICTURE study whereby a large number of diagnostic tests were undertaken in patients with unexplained syncope without providing conclusive data, but in the same study with the Reveal ILR, the mechanism of syncope in the vast majority of these patients were established often at first onset of an arrhythmia.7 "The equivalent efficacy", if not superiority, of Reveal ILRs above conventional ECGs and Holter-monitors in detecting AF was established in the "XPECT" trial.8 Its sensitivity in detecting events not seen with ECGs and Holter monitoring post COX MAZE procedure (surgical procedure for AF) and post ablations for paroxysmal AF and persistent AF is well established.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
51
Saint Thomas West Hospital
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Number and cost of atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) per patient
Patient follow up
Time frame: Three year follow-up
Number of complication s related to atrial fibrillation in patients after CABG
Patient follow up
Time frame: 3 year follow up
Number of therapeutic/intervention changes for participants post CABG resulting from use
Patient follow up
Time frame: 3 year follow up
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