Tilt table testing is also available. An invaluable strategy for patients with a heart rate too fast to function effectively. Typically, the ICD is implanted in the cath-angio lab and patients are monitored for 24 hours after the procedure. Leads placed in the heart can correct arrhythmias much more safely than previous devices, which required open heart surgery to implant. A proven treatment for a slow heart rate due to a malfunction in normal pacemaking tissues.
Current technology allows pacemakers to alter the heart rate based on the body s metabolic needs.
The STAN program, a special subunit of the Arrhythmia Service, provides evaluation for more than 400 patients per year, including children. STAN is available 24 hours a day for cardiac-event monitoring. A noninvasive monitoring device on the wrist or chest records heart rhythm during an arrhythmia event. The patient then transmits the single-lead ECG over a telephone line to a computerized system for documentation and analysis by a registered nurse. The computerized report documents a patient s physical activity, ECG and heart rhythm and also provides an analysis.