Heart problems can be costly even to learn about, not to mention the cost of trying to correct some of them. That is one reason for the variety of medical tests that cardiologists recommend to their patients.
One of the less expensive tests is the use of the Holter Heart Monitor. This is a twenty-four hour test so it gives some additional information that may not be found in a two or three minute ECG (EKG) test at the laboratory. By wearing the Holter Monitor's electrodes for a full day, any abnormal heart activity may be recorded, activity which may have not been taking place during a two or three minute ECG.
The monitor, named after its inventor Norman J. Holter, allows the patient to live through a normal day's activities at home. No hospitalization is necessary at all. A diary is kept of major activities or sensations felt with the time that they occurred. This helps the doctor to see if certain activities caused particular reactions in the heart. The patient does not do anything out of the ordinary during the time he wears the monitor. However, he is not allowed to get the monitor wet. Thus, no bathing or showering is to be done while wearing the monitor for that twenty-four hour period.
The more modern of these monitors include five to seven electric leads to the heart plus a recording device, either cassette or digital, to record activities. The monitor probably would not interfere with normal activities such as eating and sleeping, or even working.
The Holter Monitor is not a form of treatment of a cardiac problem. Rather, it is one of the tools used to diagnose problems.
A picture of a patient wearing the Holter Monitor is below.
