The term Holter may be familiar to everyone. Doctors often prescribe this test. So what kind of test is a dynamic electrocardiogram? What misunderstandings do we have when conducting this inspection? What are the precautions for doing a dynamic electrocardiogram?
1. Why perform dynamic electrocardiogram?
The primary purpose of Holter ECG is to monitor various cardiac arrhythmias, including bradycardia, tachycardia, and asystole, as well as possible symptoms of insufficient blood supply. This condition does not last for a whole day, but is episodic. It may have been fine a few seconds ago, but suddenly there is obvious tachycardia. When you want to go to the hospital, it disappears before you leave the house. The continuous long-term monitoring of dynamic electrocardiogram can avoid this situation very well.
2. Check for misunderstandings
Misunderstanding 1: Rest and do less activities during the examination.
Many people think that when wearing a dynamic electrocardiogram, they should keep quiet, rest as much as possible, and reduce activities. In fact, this is incorrect. When applying ambulatory electrocardiogram examination, you should work and rest normally as usual, and collect heart rhythm and other information in real daily life, so that you can make a more accurate and objective assessment. Even doctors try to induce discomfort and artificially increase a certain amount of exercise for the purpose of examination. The purpose of exercise is to induce discomfort and obtain relevant abnormal electrocardiogram data.
Myth 2: Hospitalization is required during the examination.
This examination does not require hospitalization. The examination equipment can be taken home by the patient. After the wearing time, the instrument will be returned and the doctor will perform playback analysis.
Misunderstanding 3: If the ECG is normal, there is no problem.
Many patients with clear amaurosis, syncope and other cardiogenic diseases did not experience any discomfort while wearing the Holter, so the abnormality may not have been captured during the examination. Therefore, when there is cardiogenic syncope or disease symptoms highly related to arrhythmia, repeated dynamic electrocardiogram examinations or long-term dynamic electrocardiogram examinations should be performed to capture evidence of arrhythmia as much as possible.
3. When doing dynamic electrocardiogram, you need to pay attention to the following matters:
For a 24-hour Holter ECG examination, the patient wears a small box (i.e., a Holter ECG machine) to connect the electrode wires and electrode pads. The patient can wear it at home during dynamic electrocardiogram examination, while walking, eating and sleeping. However, do not approach strong magnetic fields or strong electric fields, which will interfere with ECG recording. The patient is also not allowed to take a bath to prevent the electrodes from falling off and causing the examination to fail. Every time the patient feels discomfort, the time of onset should be recorded in time. It is best for the patient not to excessively move the upper body, because excessive and strong potentials generated by muscle activity will interfere with the recording of cardiac electrical activity. Try not to wear cotton underwear, which will cause static interference.
Finally, I would like to remind everyone that you can move freely during the dynamic electrocardiogram and it will not affect your daily life. You can do whatever you need to do. We cannot be like some people who dare not move around since they brought the record box home. Otherwise, the exceptions that should occur will no longer occur. The purpose of inspection is to find abnormalities. If the occurrence of chest tightness, chest pain, etc. is related to activity, you can deliberately do some moderate activities in order to record the abnormality. Only then do you need someone to accompany you to prevent accidents.
