When a person has any heart problems, he turns to a cardiologist for help. A doctor conducts an electrocardiographic study to assess the health situation of the heart muscle.
But the ECG does not reveal all the problems, because it gives a momentary "picture. For example, if a patient has occasional arrhythmias, but the heart will work normally during a visit to the doctor, there will be no abnormality on the cardiogram. In order to identify a pathology that is not visible at the time of recording the cardiogram, an ECG halter is used.
What is halter?
This is a portable medical device that is mounted on the patient’s body and, using electrodes, registers an electrocardiogram and blood pressure for twenty-four hours. An ECG holter is named after the inventor of the device, biophysicist Norman Holter. This American researcher developed and first applied the method of daily monitoring of heart function in 1961. By analyzing the data obtained during the study, the cardiologist will be able to identify violations. But in order for the monitoring picture to be objective, the patient needs to lead a normal lifestyle during the day: go to work, walk, play sports.
In this case, the doctor will ask the patient to keep a diary in which periods of rest, physical activity, emotional stress, food intake and medications will be noted. In case of pain, it will be necessary to note their nature, duration, time and causes. In some cases, the study can be carried out for two, three, and sometimes seven days.
When is ECG Halter applied?
Indications for the use of halter are patient complaints of heart pain of unknown origin, dizziness, palpitations, loss of consciousness. A cardiologist can prescribe an ECG halter to detect the presence of dangerous arrhythmias if the patient had a myocardial infarction, have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or suspected coronary heart disease.
Holter is used when it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the pacemaker or after antiarrhythmic treatment. When Norman Holter just made his invention, the device weighed 40 kilograms, and the patient carried the transmitter in a backpack on his back. The cardiogram was recorded and processed by a stationary receiver. A modern device for ECG holter weighs about 500 grams and is small, but despite this, it can interfere with the patient during sleep. In addition, halter is an expensive complex electronic device, it should be treated with care, protected from vibration and shock, from exposure to high and low temperatures. Halter cannot be wetted, so the patient will have to refuse to take a bath and shower for the duration of the study.
Holter monitoring of heart function is effective if episodes of deterioration of the patient's condition occur within twenty-four hours, otherwise additional research methods must be applied.