“What is a Holter monitor used for?”

Holter monitor typically evaluate your heart rate for the duration of the monitor which could be 24 - 48 hours. What it shows is the total heart beats during this period, the minimum, maximum and average heart rates. It also evaluate for any abnormal rhythms like fast (tachycardia) or slow (bradycardia) rhythms. Can diagnose atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rate), abnormal extra beats from the upper (atria) or lower (ventricular) chambers of the heart and give a percentage of these abnormal beats.

A holter monitor monitor is an EKG which is attached to the patient and can record 24 to 48 hours EKG of the patient's heart rhythm. The most common use of a holter monitor is to detect episodic arrhythmias. An arrhythmias is an abnormal heart rhythm, some of which are life-threatening. An EKG records 12 seconds of the heart's rhythm. To diagnose an episodic arrhythmia requires that it be captured on an EKG. This can be very difficult to do as so many arrhythmias are episodic in nature. That is, they may occur once a day, once a week, once a month, once every 3 months, etc. The odds of capturing one of these episodic arrhythmias on a routine 12 second EKG is extremely small. Longer monitoring is required. A 24 to 48 holter monitor provides longer monitoring of the heart rhythm.

The following is a short tutorial of what an EKG is. Every time the heart beats, it generates an electrical signal. An EKG is a record of those signals. A normal heart generates a variety of patterns seen on EKG. An abnormal heart generates different electrical patterns, which can be differentiated from a normal pattern. One of the most important findings on the EKG is the recording of the rhythm of the heart. Again, a normal rhythm generates a recognizable pattern. An abnormal heart rhythm generates a different kind of pattern.