Palpitations that come and go. A racing heart that stops before you can call your doctor. A brief episode of lightheadedness that left no trace on a standard EKG. These fleeting symptoms are among the hardest heart problems to pin down and among the most important not to ignore.
Holter and ambulatory heart rhythm monitoring are built for exactly these situations, recording your heart’s electrical activity over hours or days so that irregular rhythms have nowhere to hide.
At Valley Heart & Rhythm in Tarzana, Dr. Menachem Wakslak is a board-certified cardiac electrophysiologist who personally reviews every monitoring result and explains what it means for you, not just what the numbers say.
What Is Holter and Ambulatory Heart Rhythm Monitoring?
Holter and ambulatory monitors are portable devices that continuously record your heart’s electrical signals as you go about your normal life. Unlike a standard EKG taken in a doctor’s office, which captures only a brief snapshot, these monitors track your rhythm over an extended period, making it far more likely to catch irregular heartbeats that come and go.
Holter monitoring typically records your heart rhythm continuously for 24 to 48 hours. You wear a small device connected to electrode patches on your chest, keep a log of any symptoms you feel, and return the device when the monitoring period ends. For symptoms that occur less frequently, long-term ambulatory monitors can extend the recording window to weeks, providing a broader opportunity to capture infrequent events.
Who Should Consider Ambulatory Heart Monitoring?
Ambulatory monitoring is typically recommended when symptoms point to a heart rhythm problem, but a standard in-office EKG has not provided a clear answer. Common reasons include:
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Palpitations or a fluttering sensation in the chest
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Episodes of a racing or irregular heartbeat
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Unexplained dizziness or lightheadedness
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Syncope (fainting) without a known cause
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Evaluating how well a medication or treatment is working
What to Expect
Getting fitted for a Holter or ambulatory monitor is quick and painless. Small electrode patches are placed on your chest and connected to a lightweight recording device that clips to your clothing or waistband. You go home, carry on with your daily routine, and note any symptoms you experience in a provided diary. When the monitoring period ends, you return the device.
Dr. Wakslak personally reviews the full recording, identifies any abnormal findings, and then walks you through the results clearly and honestly, including what they mean for your care going forward.
Why Choose Valley Heart & Rhythm for Holter Monitoring in Tarzana, CA?
Ordering a monitor and collecting the data is the easy part. What matters is who reviews it and what they do with it. At Valley Heart & Rhythm, Dr. Wakslak analyzes every recording himself, because accurate interpretation requires knowing your complete clinical picture, not just the waveforms on a screen. There are no handoffs to a rotating pool of reviewers, no results delivered without context or conversation.
Practicing in the San Fernando Valley since 2012 and trained at some of the country’s leading academic medical centers, Dr. Wakslak brings subspecialty-level electrophysiology expertise to each evaluation, the kind of focused experience in heart rhythm disorders that most general cardiology offices cannot match.
Get Real Answers About Your Heart Rhythm
Unexplained palpitations and racing episodes should not be dismissed as stress or written off because they did not show up on one EKG. To schedule an evaluation with Dr. Wakslak at Valley Heart & Rhythm in Tarzana, CA, call (818) 724-8000.
