TELEMETRY CAPTURES STROKE PATIENTS' CARDIAC PROBLEMS

All patients hospitalized for stroke should receive continuous cardiac rhythm monitoring -- or telemetry -- for at least the first 24 hours after a stroke is detected, according to a Loyola University Health System study recently presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in Kissimmee, Fla.

In the study, records of 337 stroke patients were reviewed. A total of 289 patients had been placed on telemetry. Among the telemetry patients, 80 percent had normal rhythms but the remainder had abnormal rhythms. Seventeen percent of patients placed on telemetry developed new cardiac rhythms while monitored.

Cardiovascular risk factors were discovered more frequently in the patients placed on telemetry than in those who were not monitored.