Heart Monitor Cables & Patches

[vango57]

Is anyone familiar with the cables and patches they put on you in the hospital to monitor your heart? I just got out of the hospital and came home with the patches all over me. There was an "open" on one of the cables and I sweet talked the nurses aide out of it. The clips look to have good gold on them. The cables have an outside coil under the first layer of insulation. Then the inner wire has two layers of insulation. The patches look to have chrome or nickel plated cap on top with the bottom looking like lead but it does not scratch easy.

 

[Harold_V]

Patches used for EKG's (ECG's) have a pure silver button inside, and a silver plated button outside, which are staked together with the pad between them. The wiring for the EKG is hooked to the outer button, which is much like a snap connector. It's a good source of silver, although one must be concerned about pathogens. I had a die that would cut out the button, leaving behind only a trace of the plastic and pad.

I am not familiar with the pads you speak of.

Harold

 

[vango57]

Thanks Harold,
I figure it would take a lot of clips for the gold but you did not mention them. Guess it would take a lot of patches for the silver? How about the wires and metal coiled shield in the cables? If it wasn't so cold and wet here in Ohio I probably would have stocked up with testing supplies but you fellas in the forum really express caution so I have yet to get Steve's videos or supplies. The best I could do was make a donation to him when I first joined the forum.

 

[Harold_V]

Thanks Harold,
I figure it would take a lot of clips for the gold but you did not mention them.

Only because I have not seen them. From the picture, it appears that they are gold plated, but are they disposable? I would expect they were a part of the permanent wiring of the devices, so they aren't likely discarded regularly. If they are, and you can procure them, it may well be worth your time.

Guess it would take a lot of patches for the silver?

I never made a determination of content, because they cost me nothing and I used them for inquartation,---but they are worth processing, especially with silver now running in the mid $30's.

Considering your comments, I can't help but wonder if the patches you came home with aren't the same thing. The inner button, the one under the gel pad, is what is pure silver, likely because of the required contact without corrosion. They're thin, but silver is as heavy as lead, so it adds up quickly. I used to punch out the center (in a punch press, using a die that located the pad), then incinerate. The resulting buttons were ugly, but were perfectly acceptable for inquartation, so once punched, the processing was, for all practical purposes, free, as I had to inquart with something.

Do understand that I used to get them back in the late 80's, when there was far less concern about the disposal of potentially (pathogen) contaminated materials. The hospital used to save them for me in a large plastic bag. I expect that they can no longer dispose of them that way, regulations now requiring them to be sent to a proper disposal facility. Sad, really.

How about the wires and metal coiled shield in the cables?

I'd be more than surprised if they contained anything of value beyond copper, but it's easy enough to perform a test. They may even be plated (tin or silver), but underneath I expect they're just copper. Nitric acid alone would likely make the determination ----- a drop on the wire should yield a blue solution.

Harold

 

[etack]

the buttons are not made of Ag alone any more they are more than likely Ag/AgCL and they are cheep

Eric

 

[butcher]

the modern buttons I have seen are steel and Agcl coated plastic, even the medical product manufacturers are learning to scrimp every penny and still charge outragous prices for their products.

editted to make statement more clear.