Cardiac Arrhythmias and Atrioventricular Block in a Cohort of Asymptomatic Individuals without Heart Disease

Abstract

Aims: To evaluate cardiac arrhythmias and rhythm disturbances on 24 h ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring in a cohort of asymptomatic healthy individuals with normal clinical examination. Methods and Results: 625 asymptomatic healthy individuals, in the age range 15–83 (mean 42, SD 11.9) years; 276 (44.2%) men and 349 (55.8%) women were submitted to 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring. Statistical analysis was performed with likelihood ratio test and automatic backward logistic regression. The frequency of atrial arrhythmias (p < 0.0001; OR 1.059; 95% CI 1.050–1068) and of ventricular arrhythmias (p < 0.0001; OR 1.023; 95% CI 1.017–1.029) increased for each age increase of 1 year; neither atrial nor ventricular arrhythmias demonstrated a statistically significant difference relative to gender. Transient second-degree atrioventricular block (Mobitz I) was observed in 14 (2.2%) individuals and was more frequent in individuals with resting heart rate <60 bpm (p = 0.006; OR 6.7, 95% CI 1.7–25.5). Conclusion: The frequency of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias increased with age and did not demonstrate a significant difference relative to gender. Transient atrioventricular block was more frequent in individuals with lower resting heart rate.

Electrocardiographic assessments and cardiac events after fingolimod first dose – a comprehensive monitoring study

“…In a cohort of 625 healthy volunteers, transient type I second-degree AV blocks (Wenckebach) were observed in 14 (2.2%) individuals during nighttime. In three cases, AV blocks were also observed during daytime [17]. The occurrence of AV blocks beyond the 6-hour observation interval including nocturnal events were investigated in the FREEDOMS II trial [8].…”

Diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia: Proposed Modification of the Task Force Criteria

“…The presence of ventricular ectopy increases with age, but .200 ventricular premature beats in 24 hours in an adult ,50 years of age suggests underlying myocardial disease. 58 The revised criteria were applied post hoc to 108 newly diagnosed probands enrolled in the Multidisciplinary Study of Right Ventricular Dysplasia, a study supported by the National Institutes of Health. They had been carefully evaluated, including assessment of diagnostic tests by expert core laboratories.…”

Second‐degree atrioventricular block (Mobitz Type I) in an adolescent with anorexia nervosa: Intrinsic or acquired conduction abnormality

“…This benign type of AV block was found to be observed more frequently in individuals with resting heart rate \60 bpm. 15 In the report by Bravender et al, 13 the seconddegree AV block was thought to represent an intrinsic conduction abnormality unrelated to AN as it was present at low weight and after weight restoration. This finding reinforces the importance of having knowledge of preexisting medical problems.…”