External Loop Recorder (ELR)

An Event Loop Recorder is a recording device used to record the heart rhythm. It is similar to an ECG. You can wear the recorder over a period of 7 days to 30 days, while you go about your usual daily activities. When you feel symptoms, you press a record button and the event monitor records and stores the ECG. Two or three electrodes/sticky patches are worn on your chest. The Event Recorder is worn day and night, and continuously scans your heart’s electrical activity and stores the abnormal electrical activity. Abnormal life threatening electrical activity will be shared to your physician immediately through Email.

If you have been having recurrent symptoms, such as dizziness, chest pain, palpitation, or fainting spells, the doctor will use an Event Recorder to help determine if these symptoms are caused by an arrhythmia.

During an arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), the heart will either beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly. Doctors can diagnose an arrhythmia by obtaining an ECG, a recording of the heart’s electrical activity. Quite often, an arrhythmia will not occur in a brief period of actual recording like when you are getting an ECG at your doctor’s clinic. If your doctor suspects you have an arrhythmia, he or she will want to record the ECG when you are having symptoms.

If your symptoms are infrequent, you may require the use of an Event Recorder to catch your ECG during your symptoms.