Discussion
In this meta-analysis, comprising three randomised controlled trials that enrolled 1233 patients with ischaemic stroke, we found that patients assigned to ILR compared with non-ILR did not have a significantly reduced risk of recurrent stroke or recurrent ischaemic stroke, although higher rates of newly detected AF and initiation of OACs were found in the ILR group. Based on the evidence currently available, ILR could not be universally recommended as a standard strategy for patients with ischaemic stroke to prevent recurrent stroke.
There might be several possible explanations for why use of ILR did not translate to significant reduction of recurrent stroke in patients with ischaemic stroke despite higher rates of newly detected AF and higher OAC initiation in the ILR arms of the trials. First, since recurrent stroke was not the primary outcome of original trials, it is conceivable that individual trials did not have adequate statistical power to show the reduction of recurrent stroke and even with meta-analytic pooling of the trials, there was a statistical power problem in this meta-analysis. In the current meta-analysis, only 54 events of recurrent stroke were identified and it was therefore less likely to obtain statistically significant results. Still, we found the point estimate of the recurrent stroke was 0.70 with the upper bound of the CI of the risk ratio being 19% larger than 1.0, implying that the ILR strategy might be associated with a trend of reduced recurrent stroke. Second, there was a poor temporal correlation between AF and recurrent stroke as one included trial showed that among 16 recurrent strokes in the ILR group, only one occurred in a patient who had AF detected prior to the recurrent stroke.7 Third, device-detected AF burden is associated with an increased risk of ischaemic stroke in patients with cardiac implanted electronic devices.15 A recent study suggested that excess stroke risk above baseline was highest within 5 days of an episode of AF of 5.5 hours or more in duration and diminished rapidly thereafter.16 It is possible that a substantial portion of ILR-detected AF may be a lower burden, shorter duration and carrying a relatively lower risk of stroke.14
Structural or functional abnormalities of the heart, readily evaluated by non-invasive transthoracic echocardiogram, were not incorporated into the OAC decision making in these included trials. Subgroup analyses of a ESUS trial suggested that rivaroxaban compared with aspirin may be associated with a reduced risk of recurrent ischaemic stroke among ESUS patients with moderate or severe left atrial enlargement or with left ventricular dysfunction.17 18 For patients with ischaemic stroke having extremely low burden of AF, initiation of OACs could be reserved for patients having such structural or functional abnormalities of the heart to achieve maximal benefits for secondary stroke prevention.19 20
In addition to expensive cost, another concern is that ILR is an invasive procedure and patients may be worried about if there are some complications related to the procedure. The procedure-related adverse effects reported in the trials include infection at the insertion site (0.5%–2.4%),5 7 skin erosion overlying the device (0.7%),6 incision site haemorrhage (0.9%),7 and implant site pain (0.5%),7 which were generally regarded as minor side effects. Such potential adverse effects might be considered as negligible if future evidence could suggest that adopting ILR is a useful strategy for secondary stroke prevention.
Recently, Ko et al published a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and suggested that stroke or transient ischaemic attack were not different between ILR and usual care (OR 0.8, 95% CI 0.5 to 1.2).21 Our meta-analysis was distinct from their meta-analysis21 in several aspects. First, we used recurrent stroke and recurrent ischaemic stroke as the coprimary endpoints whereas recurrent stroke or transient ischaemic attack was used as the main endpoint in a recent paper.21 Recurrent stroke or recurrent ischaemic stroke is regarded as a ‘hard endpoint’ and has been used in two included trials6 7 and therefore might be a more appropriate endpoint for the main analysis. Second, we conducted analyses based on risk ratio, not OR, because risk ratios are more directly clinically meaningful than ORs in randomised controlled trials and cohort studies.22 Third, we found pooled risk ratio of the recurrent stroke was 0.70 in ILR versus control, implying that the ILR strategy might be associated with a trend of reduced recurrent stroke and therefore sufficiently powered randomised controlled trials of ILR among patients with ischaemic stroke might be warranted.
Limitations
There are several limitations in this meta-analysis. First, there were some variations in the characteristics and designs of the included randomised controlled trials. Although the populations of the included trials were patients with ischaemic stroke, the characteristics of the ischaemic stroke and the monitoring methods of control arm varied among included trials. The non-ILR group in the Post-Embolic Rhythm Detection with Implantable vs External Monitoring (PRE DIEM) trial used external loop recorder monitoring for 30 days,6 whereas other trials used usual care for cardiac monitoring, which was much shorter than PRE DIEM trial. Second, we excluded Atrial Fibrillation Detected by Continuous ECG Monitoring Using Implantable Loop Recorder to Prevent Stroke in High-risk Individuals (LOOP) trial because we did not know whether subgroup of history of stroke were restricted to history of ischaemic stroke and only combined end point of stroke or systemic arterial embolism was reported.14 Third, not all patients had 24-hour Holter monitoring before they were enrolled in the included trials. Patients without 24-hour Holter monitoring may have had AF that would have been detected if such monitoring had been completed before study enrollment. Fourth, the lack of respective information of the quality and persistence of OAC among included trials may affect the outcome of recurrent stroke. Since this is a meta-analysis of published trials, rather than a pooled analysis of individual patient data, further analysis could not be conducted. Fifth, the role of remote home monitoring in the early diagnosis of AF is not considered in all studies. Since an early diagnosis16 of prolonged AF (greater than 5.5 hours) can have a decisive impact on the outcome, home monitoring could be a strong means to immediately diagnose AF episodes.