CARDIAC TELEMETRY AND MONITORING.

Abstract

Two technological advances—monitoring and telemetry—are aiding the cardiologist in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatement of coronary disease. Essentially, the two techniques inform the physician of his patient's cardiac activity, both in the hospital and in the patient's normal environment. All too often, a patient who shows a stable ECG in the physician's office will experience various cardiac symptoms while at home or on the job. While telemetry and monitoring perform a similar function, the former is slightly more technical, according to Herbert J. Semler, MD, director of the Cardiac Telemetry Station at St. Vincent Hospital in Portland, Ore, who demonstrated his telemetry equipment in an exhibit at the AMA Clinical Meeting last December. The heart of the telemetry system is the radiocardiogram—a pocketsized FM radio transmitter which attaches to the chest wall by two electrodes and continually broadcasts the patient's ECG, at a maximum distance of 1,500 feet, to a