The Holter monitor is a portable device that records the electrical activity of the heart continuously, usually for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, while the patient goes about normal daily life. It is named after the American biophysicist Norman Holter, who developed the first ambulatory electrocardiogram system in the late 1940s and 1950s. His first device was a heavy backpack, weighing several kilograms, which transmitted signals by radio, but it was gradually reduced to a small recorder. The monitor allows doctors to detect irregular heart rhythms, or arrhythmias, that do not show up during a short test in a clinic, and to assess symptoms such as palpitations and fainting. Modern versions are small, wireless patches.
Before and after
- 25 December 1949Birth of Nawaz Sharif
- 26 December 1949Birth of José Ramos-Horta
- 1950Discovery of the Ishango bone
- from c. 1950s to 1970sDecolonisation of Africa
- c. 1950sInvention of Holter monitor
- c. 1950sRise of pop art
- 1950Discovery of californium
- 1950Origins of Formula One
- from 1950 to 1954McCarthyism
More in Science & technology
- 25 April 1953Watson and Crick publish the structure of DNA
- 1973Mobile phone
- 20 November 1985Creation of Microsoft Windows
- 1996Discovery of copernicium
- August 2003Discovery of moscovium
- 2006Discovery of nihonium
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.