Clinical impact of a novel ambulatory rhythm monitor in children

Traditional ambulatory rhythm monitoring in children can have limitations, including cumbersome leads and limited monitoring duration. The Zio (TM) patch ambulatory monitor is a small, adhesive, single-channel rhythm monitor that can be worn up to 2 weeks. In this study, we present a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the Zio (TM) monitor's impact in clinical practice. Patients aged 0-18 years were included in the study. A total of 373 studies were reviewed in 332 patients. In all, 28.4% had structural heart disease, and 16.9% had a prior surgical, catheterisation, or electrophysiology procedure. The most common indication for monitoring was tachypalpitations (41%); 93.5% of these patients had their symptoms captured during the study window. The median duration of monitoring was 5 days. Overall, 5.1% of Zio (TM) monitoring identified arrhythmias requiring new intervention or increased medical management; 4.0% identified arrhythmias requiring increased clinical surveillance. The remainder had either normal-variant rhythm or minor rhythm findings requiring no change in management. For patients with tachypalpitations and no structural heart disease, 13.2% had pathological arrhythmias, but 72.9% had normal-variant rhythm during symptoms, allowing discharge from cardiology care. Notably, for patients with findings requiring intervention or increased surveillance, 56% had findings first identified beyond 24 hours, and only 62% were patient-triggered findings. Seven studies (1.9%) were associated with complications or patient intolerance. The Zio (TM) is a well-tolerated device that may improve what traditional Hotter and event monitoring would detect in paediatric cardiology patients. This study shows a positive clinical impact on the management of patients within a paediatric cardiology practice.