Clinical Assessment of a New Method for Pacing Pulse Detection Using a Hybrid Circuit in Digital Holter Monitoring

Abstract

Holter monitoring is widely used for the detection of arrhythmia and ischemic episodes. Traditionally, analog amplitude-modulated Holter devices have been used for detecting arrhythmia, but they produce signal distortion due to contour effects and phase distortion caused by the tape recorders. A digital Holter device without these disadvantages has been developed and can reproduce clinically accurate electrocardiographic waveforms useful for assessment of arrhythmia and ST segments. However, their reliability is questionable when detecting pacing pulses in pacemaker patients. Because electrocardiographic signals are digitized based on sampling rate, pacing pulses are occasionally missed. Therefore, the FM-300 was developed, a new device for detecting pacing pulses on digital recordings that has both digital and analog circuits in one system and indicates pacing pulse timing with arrows. This device can automatically detect and recognize pacing pulses from various artifacts and pacing modalities, making it easy to identify pacing pulses on digitally recorded electrocardiograms. The FM-300 is useful in the diagnosis and assessment of pacemaker function and has improved the reliability of pulse detection in digital Holter monitoring.

Heart Rate Variability: Short‐Term Studies are as Useful as Holter to Differentiate Diabetic Patients from Healthy Subjects

“…Besides, digital recording avoids the use of tape recorders that introduce a new source of error related to the regularity of the tape motor 16 , 30 . As a conclusion, we can say that the 10‐minute studies performed with an A/D converter are as useful as Holter recordings for low HRV diagnosis in diabetic patients.…”

“…This article was designed to answer the following question: Are the HRV indexes obtained from short‐term analysis as useful as those from a standard Holter monitoring for diagnosis of reduced HRV in diabetic patients? To answer that question we studied HRV in two different groups: one supposed to have impaired HRV related to autonomic neuropathy (long‐evolution insulin‐dependent diabetic patients) 4 , 15‐18 and another with presumed normal HRV (healthy subjects). The HRV measurements obtained from a commercial 24‐hour Holter tape recording system were compared with those from 10‐minute digital acquired studies.…”