Switching from traditional to automatic sphygmomanometer increases opportunistic detection of atrial fibrillation in hypertensive patients.

摘要

Routine pulse palpation is one of the screening method to detect asymptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) in clinical practice. Recently new automatic sphygmomanometers with embedded algorhytms to detect irregular heart beat and possible AF have been commercialized. Whether the switch from the traditional sphygmomanometer to these devices modifies AF detection in usual care is unknown. 12294 patients of 30 GPs members of the Italian College of General practitioners working in Bologna with recorded diagnosis of Hypertension and BP recording were extracted before and after the adoption and use of an automatic device. 14 other GPs who were using a traditional device (Riva-Rocci or aneroid sphygmomanometer), volunteered to provide the same data extraction from their personal database. Heart rhythm should be evaluated while measuring BP with usual devices. This information may be lost with with a few automatic devices, therefore the use of automatic devices with algorithms which can detect possible AF is an appealing choice. Our data show that switching from the traditional device to an automatic device with algorithm for irregular beat detection increases the identification rate of previously unknown AF in hypertensive population.