Feel my heartbeat

May 23, 2007 3:36 PM

Is there some way I can view the data I'm recording on a 30-day heart event monitor?

I just got fitted with a 30-day event monitor to attempt to capture some arrhythmias that I've been experiencing. I have electrodes on my chest attached to a little device I put in my pocket, then I push a button on the device when I feel the palpitation. If I record an "event," I have to call in and transmit the data over the phone. Literally, I put the mouthpiece of the phone to a little speaker on the monitor and it produces a high-pitched tone for several minutes, just like the acoustic modems of yore.

So, what I'm wondering is, is there any way for me to capture the data on my PC and actually look at it? There aren't any extra jacks on the device that might support a data cable. Could I record the beeps and whirrs and look at it somehow?

posted by cabingirl to health (3 comments total)

Your cardiologist will be able to show you printouts of all your uploads. These will probably be faxed or mailed to the doctor from the monitoring service on a weekly basis, so if you drop by the doctor's office, they might be able to show it to you.

I recently finished my 30 day monitor and was also curious about the modem. This was a "King of Hearts" model monitor. It didn't sound anything like normal modem modulation. I wonder if it was actually "analog" fsk, where the pitch or difference between 2 pitches encodes an analog ECG waveform, rather than a sampled digital signal.
posted by schrodycat at 3:56 PM on May 23, 2007

I would try recording it into my computer and saving the resulting file as a text file.
posted by rhizome at 7:19 PM on May 23, 2007

It's either really a modem, in which case you might have luck with something like HyperTerm on Windows in the File Receive modes, or it's much simpler, like what rhizome suggests.
posted by odinsdream at 7:49 PM on May 23, 2007