Medium Term ECG Recorder

 

ECG recorders are used when a patient complains of palpitations or fainting, or after an ablation procedure to monitor for arrhythmias in an outpatient setting.

For continuous ECG recording longer than 24 hours, I prefer to use recorders that are more comfortable for the patient. These recorders consist of a single stick-on electrode and device that records, stores and transmits via bluetooth technology to a cellphone device which then uses cellular network to transmit to a central monitoring center. At the monitoring center, personnel review the data and alert the physician (via email, fax, or sms) if any abnormal rhythms are detected. Using a secure password, the physician may log in to the monitoring centre website at anytime, to view the recordings of any of his own patients. At the end of the monitoring period, a report is generated and the Cardiologist can review, add comments and sign the report.

Continuous recordings are needed for symptoms that are very short in duration, such that the patient may not have enough time to initiate a recording when a symptom occurs. However if the symptom lasts for at least a few minutes, another type of recorder known as a post event recorder may be used. This requires the patient to have the recorder at hand when the symptom occurs, although it is not necessary to wear it all the time. The patient can then put the recorder on his chest to record the rhythm when the symptom occurs. Such recorders can store 3-5 events before the memory is full. He can then bring the recorder back to the clinic for the data to be downloaded.