How long do wearable cardiac monitors record data?

There has been a movement away from the older style wired Holter monitors and loop recorder event monitors over the past decade to small, wearable patch type remote monitoring devices. These newer, easier to use devices are also recording a lot more data than older systems and for longer periods of time.

Matthew Reynolds, MD, cardiac electrophysiologist at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, briefly explains the length of time an outpatient cardiac ECG data monitoring devices are worn and the differences in the types of cardiac monitors. He was involved in the recent EXCALIBER and CAMELOT studies, which were the first large-scale studies of more than 300,000 patients using newer ambulatory cardiac monitoring (ACM) devices presented at the Heart Rhythm Society 2024 meeting.

There he discusses long-term continuous monitoring (LTCM) and mobile cardiac telemetry monitoring (MCT), which are also referred to as mobile cardiac outpatient telemetry (MCOT) by some vendors.

He said traditional Holter monitors are used up to 48 hours, but the LTCM category now ranges from three days up to 21 days. Reynolds said these devices were previously limited to 14 days.