Holter monitoring is an effective method for diagnosing the heart

Holter monitoring is a method for diagnosing heart function based on continuous ECG recording for 12-48 hours. It has several advantages over standard electrocardiography:

1) It allows to evaluate the work of the heart not only at rest, but also in the conditions of the patient's usual physical activity.

2) Registration takes place during 12-48 hours, and not at a time, so even those changes on the ECG, which manifest themselves only occasionally, will not escape the attention of doctors.

As the staffing capacity of medical facilities is improved, Holter monitoring is used more and more often. At the same time, the list of indications for conducting this diagnostic method is constantly expanding. To date, it is used in the following cases:

1) The patient complains of interruptions in the work of the heart, frequent dizziness, periodic loss of consciousness, pain behind the sternum.

2) It is necessary to evaluate ischemic changes.

3) It is necessary to assess the occurrence of life threatening arrhythmias in patients with nighttime apnea syndrome, QT prolonged interval syndrome, cardiomyopathy or myocardial infarction.

4) When assessing the correctness of the pacemaker.

5) It is necessary to evaluate how effective antianginal and antiarrhythmic therapy is.

6) If there is a suspicion of the occurrence of an extended QT interval syndrome to assess its change within 12-48 hours.

7) When assessing the variability of the heart rate.

Holter monitoring of the ECG is performed using a special device that is attached to the patient's chest. It is equipped with numerous sensors that capture electrical impulses emanating from the heart during its operation.

At the time of ECG registration, the patient is asked to keep a special diary, where he should select what he was doing. In this case, the doctor or nurse explains what can not be done in the Holter monitoring process. First, you should not give the body an excessive load, that is, you do not need to engage in heavy physical exercises. Also, it is impossible to place electrical devices (computer, electronic book, etc.) in the immediate vicinity of the device. Also, the patient should not smoke and drink alcoholic beverages. Secondly, in the event that a person at a time when holter monitoring is experiencing unpleasant sensations, he should fix it. This is done with a special button located on the device itself.

After Holter monitoring is over, the device is removed, and the cardiologist, along with the technicians, deciphers the data. As a result, it is possible to obtain a sufficiently large amount of useful information that fully reflects the work of the heart.

If earlier this method was used extremely rarely even in large medical centers, today many clinics offer patients to undergo holter monitoring. The cost of this procedure while constantly declining, which contributes to early diagnosis of heart disease.