WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with syncope, 14-day cardiac monitoring does not reduce the number of syncope episodes at one year, according to a study published online Aug. 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, held from Aug. 28 to 31 in Munich.
Matthew J. Reed, M.D., from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted an open-label, randomized, controlled trial at 45 U.K. hospitals to examine the effects of 14-day cardiac monitoring on diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes among adults with syncope. Participants were assigned to undergo 14-day ambulatory electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring (intervention group) or to receive standard care provided at each participating site (standard-care group; 1,123 and 1,111 patients, respectively).
The primary analysis included 1,970 patients: 1,004 and 966 in the intervention and standard-care groups, respectively. The researchers found that the mean number of patient-reported syncope episodes at one year was 1.37 ± 5.10 and 1.58 ± 8.56 in the intervention and standard-care groups, respectively (incidence rate ratio, 0.89; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.68 to 1.18; P = 0.42). Clinically significant arrhythmia occurred in 22.0 and 9.0 percent of patients in the intervention and standard-care groups (odds ratio, 2.95; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.28 to 3.81), with median time to detection of 22.0 and 54.5 days, respectively. Death from any cause occurred in 1.5 and 2.9 percent, respectively (odds ratio, 0.50; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.27 to 0.93). There were 49 and eight adverse events reported in the intervention and standard-care groups, respectively.
"Although immediate ECG monitoring did not reduce recurrent fainting, it enabled earlier identification of serious cardiac rhythm disorders, allowing patients to receive treatment much sooner," Reed said in a statement.
One author disclosed ties to Boston Scientific.
