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By Mayo Clinic staffJust before your Holter monitor test, you'll have a doctor's appointment to have your monitor fitted. You should bathe before this appointment, because once your monitoring begins, you can't get the monitor wet or remove the monitor to bathe.
A technician will place the electrodes that sense your heartbeat on your chest. For men, a small amount of hair may be shaved to make sure the electrodes stick. The technician will then connect the electrode to a recording device with several wires, and will instruct you on how to properly wear the recording device, so it can record data transmitted from the electrodes.
You'll be instructed to keep a diary of all the activities you do while wearing the monitor. It's particularly important to record in the diary any symptoms of palpitations, skipped heartbeats, shortness of breath, chest pain or lightheadedness. You'll usually be given a form to help you record your activities and any symptoms.
Once your monitor is fitted and you've received instructions on how to wear it, you can leave your doctor's office and resume your normal activities.
- What are Holter, event, and transtelephonic monitors? American Heart Association. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3005149. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- Holter monitoring. Texas Heart Institute. http://www.texasheart.org/HIC/Topics/Diag/diholt.cfm. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- Park MK. Special tools in evaluation of cardiac patients. In: Park MK. Pediatric Cardiology for Practitioners. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/121956069-4/807984289/1588/35.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04636-7..50012-5--cesec52_232. Accessed Feb. 23, 2009.
- Barbara Woodward Lips Patient Education Center. Ambulatory blood pressure/Holter diary. Rochester, Minn.: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research; 2007.
