Connecting Holter to Patient/Begin Recording Process

1.0

Patient Preparation

Proper preparation of the patient's skin is absolutely essential to obtaining a quality ECG recording. Note: without good skin preparation, both noise and artifact will frequently degrade the patient’s ECG to the point of being unusable by the physician

Materials Needed

  1. For 3 channel recording, use five (5) Silver-Silver chloride disposable pre-jelled electrodes designed for 24 hour Holter monitoring. Do not use 12-lead ECG or Stress Test Electrodes. Use electrodes designed for longer term 24 hour monitoring
  2. 4 x 4 Prep Pads
  3. Isopropyl Alcohol

Recommended Steps

  1. Select the sites for electrode application. The electrodes must be applied over bone or cartilage. Refer to the Electrode Placement Charts (Figure 18)
  2. Wipe the skin in the electrode areas with an alcohol prep pad
  3. After allowing the skin to dry thoroughly, locate the electrode placement sites by palpation
  4. Dry shave body hair from the electrode sites
  5. Using a small square piece of an abrasive material (220 grit sandpaper or equivalent) and moderate pressure, abrade the skin at the electrode sites by making 3 or 4 crossing strokes. The strokes should cross at the chosen electrode site. Lightly brush the areas with a dry gauze pad to remove any debris
  6. Connect the color coded snap-on lead wires to the appropriate electrodes before applying the electrodes to the patient
  7. Once the backing is removed from each electrode, place it firmly on the prepared skin surface site. Tape leads onto electrodes
  8. In order to prevent the lead from tugging directly on the electrodes, create a strain relief by looping each lead wire and placing a strip of adhesive tape over the loop as well as on the electrode
2.0

Starting the Recording Process

For VX3 compact cards: Enter the patient’s personal data in the patient’s diary. Name, 9-digit patient ID number, start date, start time, etc.
  1. Insert the flash memory card into the recorder
  2. The electrodes and lead wires should be attached to the patient as specified in the previous section (Electrode Attachment). Once this has been done, the lead wires must next be connected to the recorder. For the VX3, the circular connector plugs into the recorder and screws down
  3. Install one fresh alkaline AA battery
Caution: all previous ECG patient data on the Memory card will be erased immediately once the new batteries are inserted For recorders, there are a number of setup options. To enter setup, hold down the ENTER key when putting in the batteries. Some of the options are as follows: To set time and date, use the arrow keys to select Time or date and hit ENTER to select. Repeat for hours, minutes and seconds. Use Save and Exit to set. To set recording time select it, hit enter and select 24 or 48 hour recording. (the default is 24 hours) To set "Pacer Detection" for this patient, enable it in the same manner as above. (this option is not stored and must be activated as desired for each patient) ECG's will stay on the screen for 10 - 15 minutes allowing the operator to ensure a good "hookup". Change electrodes as needed in order to have clean tall and positive "R" waves. Once a good "hookup" is verified, record the start date and time in the patient's diary and dismiss the patient. Examples of normal ECGs, noise, PVCs, etc. (Figure 13)
3.0 If you need help, call us!