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. In a randomized controlled trial (Find-AF(RANDOMISED)), prolonged and enhanced Holter ECG monitoring (EPM) revealed a significantly higher detection rate of AF compared to SoC, although its cost-effectiveness has not yet been investigated. Methods: Based on the data of FIND-AF(RANDOM…