[Transmission and non-transmission portable ECG in home care medicine]

Portable electrocardiography is advantageous in that patients can record ECG by themselves at any time and place. Portable ECG can be classified into two kinds of devices, transmission type and non-transmission type. By using transmission-type portable ECG, patients can obtain an ECG diagnosis from the center by transmitting the recorded ECG. Transmission-type portable ECG is extremely useful for patients needing emergency treatment for such as an attack of ischemic heart disease or arrhythmic event. On the other hand, a patient has to go to a specialist to obtain an ECG diagnosis with the non-transmission-type portable ECG device after recording the ECG alone. As this model is slightly cheaper, and is easy to use, the non-transmission-type portable ECG is good in non-emergency use for early diagnosis and prevention of cardiac disease. Portable ECG is useful for ECG monitoring over time without seeing the patient, not only for symptomatic analysis of the patient. For example, silent myocardial ischemia and arrhythmic events developing during exercise will become clear in periodical portable ECG recording. In particularly, portable ECG is useful for noncontinual ECG monitoring of patients with Brugada syndrome and those administered with antiarrhythmic drugs. Portable ECG increases the opportunity to discover cardiac disease from the aspect of preventive medicine. When patients use a portable ECG during exercise, they can understand whether the exercise is suitable for their heart. Portable ECG is a useful measurement in preventive medicine as described above, not only for the home care of patients.