Real time loop recorder with telemonitoring

Real time loop recorder with telemonitoring

Advances in communication devices and electrocardiographic technology have enabled real time loop recorder with telemonitoring. Leshem-Rubinow E and colleagues from Department of Cardiology, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel, assessed the utility of one such system [New real-time loop recorder diagnosis of symptomatic arrhythmia via telemedicine. Clin Cardiol. 2011;34:420-5]. The real time facility overcomes the delay involved in conventional loop recorders in arriving at the diagnosis as the analysis is done after completion of the recording. The device tested (Cardio R loop recorder) transmits electrocardiographic tracings by mobile communication system on activating a push button on the device. Users can also transmit messages on associated symptoms so that a correlation between the rhythm and symptom can be achieved. Medical team on duty would analyze the display and give instructions to the user, notify their physician and if necessary dispatch a mobile intensive care unit to the location. Over seventeen thousand ECG transmissions from over six hundred patients were received during and one and a half year study period. Trial for each patient involved one month. A diagnostic rhythm disturbance correlating with the symptom could be identified in almost half of the cases and could be displayed within seven minutes in ninety three percent of them. Diagnosis could be usually made within two days of onset of recordings.