Long-term continuous ECG monitoring to detect and treat bradyarrhythmia in older adults does not lower the risk of sudden cardiovascular death or syncope compared to usual care, a study shows.

Although there was a sixfold increase in diagnoses and a higher pacemaker implantation rate, Danish researchers reported no clinical benefit from screening for the arrhythmia using an implantable loop recorder (ILR).

“The findings indicate that incidentally detected bradyarrhythmia may be a risk marker but is often not a disease itself,” say clinicians led by cardiologist Dr Jesper Svendsen from the University of Copenhagen.

In a post-hoc analysis of the large LOOP randomised clinical trial, the team analysed data from 6000 patients (mean age 75) to assess the prevalence of bradyarrhythmia and the prognostic significance of incidental diagnoses.