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An implantable chip is 6 times better than external cardiac monitoring for detecting bouts of atrial fibrillation that could trigger a devastating stroke.  Cardiologists at Harvard’s Mass General Hospital and Northwestern University draw this conclusion from their study of 492 patients who suffered a first stroke with no identifiable cause.  

 

Half the group were randomized to receive a tiny implantable cardiac monitoring chip and the others were monitored with conventional methods.  The chip detected runs of atrial fibrillation in 12.1% of cases versus only 1.8% by conventional means.  Based on this result, the investigators suggest that any stroke patient with a history of atrial fibrillation should be monitored with this high tech implant.

 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2780490

 

#atrialfibrillation #stroke #monitoring #implant