Insertable Cardiac Monitor

Insertable Cardiac Monitor at Garnet Health

An insertable cardiac monitor is a small device that is programmed to continuously monitor your heart's activities before, during and after episodes of possible cardiac conditions, including:

• Recurrent, unexplained fainting
• Heart palpitations
• Unexplained stroke
• Atrial fibrillation

The device then records your heart's rhythms automatically and manually by using a hand-held patient assistant. With this indepth and real-time data, your doctor can better analyze your condition and determine the cause.

Inserting a Cardiac Monitor (ICM)

The procedure of inserting an insertable cardiac monior (ICM) is typically brief and minimally invasive, as this very tiny, yet powerful, system is inserted just beneath the skin of the chest by your physician. Local anesthesia is used to numb the area so that a small incision and the monitor inserted, while you are awake and able to communicate to the doctors and nurses performing this procedure.

Recovery from this procedure tends to also be minimial, aside from some minor discomfort near the incision site. Your doctor will educate you on at-home care post-procedure, as well as instructions on limiting lifting and activity levels.

Reveal LINQ™ Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM)

At Garnet Health Medical Center, we offer the Reveal LINQ™ Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) to our cardiac patients, which is the smallest long-term, insertable cardiac monitoring device available. It is approximately one-third the size of an AAA battery (~1 cc), making it more than 80 percent smaller than other ICMs currently available.

The device is part of a powerful system that allows physicians to continuously and wirelessly monitor a patient’s heart for up to three years. In addition to its continuous and wireless monitoring capabilities, the system provides remote monitoring and notifies physicians if patients have significant cardiac events between regular medical appointments.