Use of transtelephonic electrocardiographic monitoring in children with suspected arrhythmias.

Arrhythmias in children can produce various symptoms and their assessment often is difficult with usual methods. Transtelephonic electrocardiographic monitoring was used in 136 symptomatic patients (palpitations [112], syncope [six], chest pain [18]) for a mean duration of 86 +/- 65 days; mean age was 11.1 +/- 4.8 years and 62% were female. Of 398 recordings sent (mean 2.9 per patient) 32 revealed significant arrhythmias (8%). Of the 67 patients reporting symptoms during the recording period, only 24 had documented arrhythmias - 23 supraventricular tachycardia and one junctional tachycardia. The negative predictive value is 100%, compared with a low positive predictive value of 36%; sensitivity and specificity are, respectively, 100 and 62%. Of the 24 patients with documented arrhythmias, 54% were treated versus 13% of those with normal recordings (P < 0.01). At the end of the follow-up (mean duration 1.6 +/- 1.2 years), 63% of the patients with negative recordings had not complained of further symptoms versus 22% of those with documented arrhythmias (P = 0.001). Transtelephonic electrocardiographic monitoring is an important tool for documenting infrequent arrhythmias in children and even more for reassuring the patient and his or her family in the absence of significant arrhythmias.