Patient cable failure is probably the most common cause of unacceptable ECG tracings. Patient cable failure can show up as artifacts, noisy tracings, failure to acquire signal or a long time to acquire a usable signal. On many of the older cables and most stress test cables individual patient leads are replacable. On newer units with molded cables it is necessary to replace the whole cable.
If you suspect your patient cable is faulty hook it to your simulator and flex it at its stress points. These are where the cable is attached to the Ecg, where the individual patient leads attach to to the manifold and the ends of the patient leads where they atttach to the simulator. A failure caused by flexing at any point points to a bad cable.
