Did you know?
YOUR HEART IS AN OVERACHIEVER
Each day, your heart beats about 100,000 times. Over a 70-year lifetime, that adds up to 2.5 billion pulses.
ECG & Report
Each beat of your heart is triggered by an electrical impulse generated from cells in the upper right chamber of your heart. An electrocardiogram (called an ECG) is a noninvasive and painless test that is used to monitor your heart. An electrocardiogram tracks and records these electrical signals as they travel through your heart. Any irregularity in the heart rhythm or damage to the heart muscle can change the electrical activity of the heart so that the shape of the ECG is changed.
01.
Reading
Prior to taking an ECG test, you may be asked to change into a hospital gown before lying down on an examining table or bed. Several electrodes are attached to the skin on each arm and leg and on your chest. These are hooked to a machine that traces your heart activity onto a paper. Each one has a wire attached to a monitor that will record and produce ECG strips after reading.
02.
Interpretation
The ECG strip from the recordings made by the ECG machine across multiple heart beats of the patient is then interpreted a healthcare professional.
03.
Results
The doctor will look at the pattern of spikes and dips on your ECG to check the electrical activity in different parts of your heart. The spikes and dips are grouped into different sections that show how your heart is working.
Conducting an ECG
A doctor may request an ECG to be performed on patients who may be at risk of heart disease due to a family history of heart disease, or because they smoke, are overweight, or have diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure that affects their general health. An electrocardiogram can be performed by our trained technicians.
A standard ECG test will take just a few minutes. You’ll be asked to lie on an examining table or bed. Electrodes will be attached to your arms, legs and chest. The electrodes are sticky patches applied with a gel to help detect and conduct the electrical currents of your heart. If you have hair on the parts of your body where the electrodes will be placed, the technician may need to shave the hair so that the electrodes stick properly. Moving, talking or shivering may distort the ECG test results.
The ECG is a safe procedure with no known risks. It does not send electric current to the body and thus the patient can resume normal activities. The ECG is non-invasive and doesn’t involve medications or require recovery time.
When completed, the trace will be transmitted to our specialist cardiologists for interpretation and report back to your treating doctor.
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