Some heart issues don’t show symptoms all the time. An abnormal heart rate, such as tachycardia (too fast) or bradycardia (too slow), may happen only once in a while. Likewise, an abnormal heart rhythm may only happen occasionally. The specialists at Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, can use devices such as the pediatric Holter monitor to track your child’s heart rate for longer time periods in order to find the correct diagnosis for your child.

A Holter monitor records the electrical activity of your child’s heart for 24 hours or longer to help identify the diagnoses related to your child’s heart condition.

Diagnostic services with Norton Children’s Heart Institute are available throughout Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

How Does Holter Monitoring Work?

Norton Children’s Heart Institute technicians will place electrodes, like those used in an EKG test, on your child. The electrodes are sticky and attach to your child’s chest. Wires run from the electrodes to a Holter monitor, which continuously records your child’s heart rhythm.

Your child will wear the Holter monitor on a belt or shoulder strap for 24 hours or longer. The monitor records the heart’s electrical activity while your child does his or her regular activities. We may ask you or your child to keep a log of your child’s activities while the Holter monitor is recording. The log gives our pediatric cardiologists more detail when examining the data that is recorded.

You’ll remove the Holter monitor after the testing period is completed or return to a Norton Children’s Heart Institute location to have a technician remove it.

Why Choose Norton Children’s Heart Institute

• Norton Children’s Hospital has been a pioneer in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, performing Kentucky’s first pediatric heart transplant in 1986 and becoming the second site in the United States to perform an infant heart transplant.
• The American Board of Thoracic Surgery has certified our cardiothoracic surgeons in congenital heart surgery.
• The Adult Congenital Heart Association has accredited Norton Children’s Heart Institute’s Adult Congenital Heart Program as the only comprehensive care center in Kentucky and Indiana treating adults born with a heart defect.
• More than 5,000 children a year visit Norton Children’s Heart Institute for advanced heart care.
• Norton Children’s Heart Institute has offices across Kentucky and Southern Indiana to bring quality pediatric heart care closer to home.
• The Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at Norton Children’s Hospital is the largest dedicated CICU in Kentucky, equipped with 17 private rooms and the newest technology available for heart care.