The high technology that changes our lives is not only a product of the end of the last three decades that have revolutionized the world. There are inventions that seem more typical of an idea developed by Steve Jobs than of a creation with almost eight decades of life, but we can find cases that show that even in moments in History that were not so technologically advanced, there have been visionaries who have contributed to changing the world. world for good.
A good example is the invention created by the American biophysicist Norman J. Holter in Montana, at the end of the 1940s. His creation, the Holter monitor, has since been used to diagnose millions of patients and today remains an essential tool for detecting cardiovascular abnormalities. Holter monitoring is considered a cardiological diagnostic test that consists of ambulatory monitoring of the electrocardiographic record for a prolonged period of time, usually twenty-four hours, in a person who is moving.
Holter's initial idea was simple, but very ambitious. She intended to build a device that could record and store data that would allow us to know how the heart behaves during any given day, while the patient leads a normal life, including their work and family routines. And she got it. The Holter has now become indispensable material for the diagnosis of heart diseases for almost eighty years. It allows a continuous electrocardiogram to be performed remotely for 24 hours without the patient having to stay in a health center. It monitors the heart rate at all times and detects whether or not there are alterations in its rhythm. Norman J. Holter established the foundations of cardiac monitoring in 1949.
The use of Holter is especially indicated for those patients who present a clinical picture that includes palpitations and tachycardia whose origin is not perfectly identified, dizziness or chest pain. For years it has also been used to control pacemakers implanted in heart patients. But, fundamentally, it is used in the study of arrhythmias, bradycardias, tachycardias, coronary diseases and extrasystoles.
Holter manipulation is quite simple. Several electrodes must be placed distributed over the entire surface of the patient's chest, which are connected to a digitized recorder the size of a not very large mobile phone. Once connected, the patient is free to lead a normal life for an entire day. The objective of the holter is to capture data during a normal day without having to do anything extraordinary or out of the daily routine. It is about checking how the heart behaves, detecting possible problems and relating them to the moment in which the possible unusual behavior occurred. After 24 hours, the patient returns to the hospital to have the holter monitor removed. Once the device is recovered, the cardiologist downloads the data to analyze it and make a diagnosis.
The holter has evolved since its creation. There are certain anomalies that it is not able to detect, especially those that are very sporadic. For these occasions there is the implantable holter, which requires a very simple surgical intervention, lasting about fifteen minutes, to place the device subcutaneously. Only local anesthesia is needed and allows the holter to remain under the skin for weeks waiting to detect any detail that may lead to a correct diagnosis. While this happens, it stores data about the functioning of the heart. It has an autonomy of about two years and, obviously, the patient can lead a normal life, including exercising regularly.
