Table 6.

Patient characteristics, including distinct electrocardiographic features, in relation to frequent false arrhythmia alarms

Patient clinical characteristics	Higher number of false arrhythmia alarms per monitored hour		Longer duration in seconds of false arrhythmia alarms per monitored hour
Clinical or electrocardiographic characteristic	Median (range; sum)	P-value	Median (range; sum)	P-value
Altered mental status (confusion or agitation documented)		<0.001		<0.001
Confused, n=198	0.5 (0–184; 800)		2.0 (0–2,263; 10,505)
Not confused, n=263	0.0 (0–51; 381)		0.0 (0–3,812; 9,538)
^^Body mass index		0.794		0.456
Body mass index ≥30, n=142	0.2 (0–51; 300)		0.5 (0–3,812; 7,939)
Body mass index <30, n=314	0.7 (0–184; 870)		0.0 (0–2,263; 11,759)
Current smoker		0.327		0.516
Smoker, n=71	0.0 (0–51; 144)		0.0 (0–3,812; 5,581)
Nonsmoker, n=390	0.2 (0–184; 1,037)		0.5 (0–2,263; 14,463)
Seizures documented		0.614		0.769
Seizures, n=19	0.2 (0–8; 30)		0.7 (0–184; 1,151)
No seizures, n=442	0.1 (0–184; 1,151)		0.3 (0–3,812; 19,883)
Tremors documented		0.901		0.746
Tremors, n=36	0.0 (0–26; 90)		0.0 (0–954; 1,408)
No tremors, n=425	0.1 (0–184; 1,091)		0.4 (0–3,812; 18,653)
BBB per cardiac monitor		0.003		0.004
BBB, n=41	0.6 (0–184; 339)		4.0 (0–3,812; 8,191)
No BBB, n=420	0.0 (0–134; 842)		0.0 (0–2,263; 11,852)

Notes: Mann–Whitney U-test: number and duration of false arrhythmia alarms per hour compared between patients who do or do not have the selected characteristic (N=461);

^{^^}five patients had no recorded weight. Missing data was excluded from the calculation. Results in bold are statistically significant with alpha set at 0.05, patients with a characteristic depicted in bold have significantly more arrhythmia alarms than those patients without the characteristic.

Abbreviation: BBB, Bundle branch block.