What are the criteria for the diagnosis of Atrial High Rate Episodes (AHREs)?
AHREs, currently defined as episodes of at least 5 minutes of atrial tachyarrhythmias/AF with an atrial rate greater than 180 beats/minute, are usually asymptomatic and discovered during routine device follow-up. Temporal cutoffs for detection and storage of AHRE data as short as 30 to 60 seconds have been used, but the diagnostic accuracy is reliable when episodes of at least 5 minutes in duration are considered, as this minimizes the risk of over-sensing due to detection of artifacts caused by myopotentials or other sources of electrical interference. After detection of AHREs by CIEDs, conventional Holter or other ECG long-term recordings (ie, patient-operated devices) can be considered in specific cases (eg, unavailable electrograms or unclear diagnosis at device electrograms analysis).