The use of transtelephonic loop recorders for the assessment of symptoms and arrhythmia recurrence after radiofrequency catheter ablation.

An assessment of arrhythmia recurrence after successful radiofrequency catheter ablation using transtelephonic loop recorders was conducted in 36 patients. The vast majority of these true arrhythmic events were caused by trivial arrhythmias (extrasystoles or sinus tachycardia), equally distributed among symptomatic and asymptomatic episodes. Overall, symptom recurrence had low sensitivity and high specificity for the detection of any arrhythmia, and high sensitivity but low specificity for the detection of relapse. In conclusion, transtelephonic monitoring was a useful tool for the assessment of symptoms after radiofrequency catheter ablation.