Long-term EKG Monitor

Are you one of those people who passes out infrequently, and really wants to know why?

At present, the "state-of-the-art" monitoring of undiagnosed arrhythmias is provided by Medtronic's Reveal Plus monitor (seen at right). This device can hold up to 42 minutes of heart rhythm in its memory, and triggers its storage when the heart rhythm exceeds certain high or low boundaries.

As technology marches on though, the ability to monitor a patient's heart rhythm will soon get even longer. Now researchers in England are testing the Transoma's "Sleuth," a device housed in a pacemaker-like can that transmits 48 hours of continuous heart rhythms from a basestation connected to the internet:

The Sleuth acts as an aerial and sends a recording of the heart beat to a mobile phone sized activator.

The activator clips onto the belt during the day and plugs into the phone at night.

Recordings are sent over the internet to a company in New Jersey, in the USA, which analyses the information and sends the results back to consultants in Eastbourne.

Although a niche device, the company hopes use continuous telemetry to monitor ST segment abnormalities as a measure of heart ischemia and is also developing a surgically-implanted continuous left ventricular pressure monitor.

-Wes

References: Transoma's press release.