Utility of Home ECG Machines
By: Robert NamTotal Views: 456, Word Count: 556,
Home ECG monitor is a machine which allows you to take your ECG measurement anytime and anywhere. Unless you have already passed the early stages of heart diseases, your ECG machine won’t be able to detect cardiac symptoms when you are in a doctor’s office. The time when you are not feeling well is the best time to take an ECG measurement. You just need to record the result and show it to your physician for further diagnosis. This is where the utility of home ECG machines come into picture.
Today, a home ECG machine is useful as it helps to record the electrical activity in the heart. An electrocardiograph produces an electrocardiogram which records the electrical activity of the heart over time. Today, multiple filters for signal processing are offered by home ECG monitors.
Home or personal ECG monitors available in the market are convenient, compact and cheap. The price has drastically come down by 50% as compared to 2 to 3 years ago and this vital factor makes the ECG machine a better option for home. Moreover, the quality of the data captured is great and clearly shows the waveform.
One not only needs to have some basic knowledge of ECG machine, but also of one’s own normal ECG wave pattern. For individuals with the problem of sleep apnea, a patient can record his/her ECG for the entire night and this data could be used for further analysis. Though ECG is only one of the numerous data monitored during a sleep study, research has shown that ECG alone is adequate for diagnosis in over 94% of the cases.
Utility of home ECG machines involve taking ECG in a simple and easy manner. A patient can easily use this to monitor his/her progress and the consequence of taking medicines. In addition, the home ECG machine could also help in preventing false heart attacks.
Some Benefits of Home ECG Machines
Measuring the Heart Beat Abnormalities during Normal Activities
It’s vital that you measure your heart beat during your regular work day. Modern home ECG machines or devices are so small that they could easily be worn under the clothes. As some of them are wireless, you could also connect the electrodes to the monitor without any wires; thus causing less distraction. You can do your regular activities, except bathing as your heart rhythms are measured.
Monitoring ECG by Staying at Home
If given an option, several people would prefer staying at home rather than in a hospital. Irrespective of how friendly the hospital staff would be; people still would prefer to stay with the people they know rather than strangers. Thus, they would prefer to be helped by their family members in taking their ECG. This is where a home ECG machine comes handy. Modern technologies like the wireless ECG or small home ECG monitor and even transferring data to the hospital via internet makes home measurements of ECG simple and prolific.
Finally, in US the hospital stay is expensive. Many people are still not completely insured, thus a 20 to 40% deduction in the cost could be beneficial to the people. A home ECG machine is quite reasonably priced and could be afforded by many people. This is one of the biggest utility of home ECG machines.
About the Author
Dr. Robert Nam is a well known heart specialist and has done postgraduate training in cardiology at the national heart hospital, the London chest hospital and UCL hospital, London. He was also engaged in research at the national heart and lung institute. Nowadays he is working as a consultant cardiologist at UCL hospital, London
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