What’s the Difference Between an Electrocardiogram and an Echocardiogram?

Your heart health is essential throughout your life, especially as you age. The older you get, the more likely you are to have heart issues, heart disease, and even a heart attack.

Taking care of your heart through eating a healthy diet and exercising is an excellent way to stay on top of your health – but it's not the only way. If you're at risk for heart disease, your doctor may recommend an echocardiogram or an electrocardiogram (ECG).

Both tests help us determine the overall health of your heart and its electrical system, but they're also very different. At the Heart Clinic of Hammond, Dr. Ghiath Mikdadi and Dr. Farid Zayed provide various diagnostic tools to determine your heart health.

Dr. Mikdadi and Dr. Zayed are board-certified cardiologists offering various tests and treatments for heart disease, stroke, and heart attacks.

What is an electrocardiogram?

An electrocardiogram, or ECG, is a simple test to study the heart's electrical system. It's quick and painless and only takes a few minutes to get definitive results.

We perform the test while you're lying down and at rest. Our team attaches sticky electrodes to your chest and limbs, which detect the heart's electrical activity. The electrodes deliver the electrical activity to a machine that prints a readable rhythm.

You may need an electrocardiogram for several reasons. It can be an emergent test or a routine exam to check for various problems, including the following:

• Check for arrhythmias
• Diagnose ischemia or poor blood flow
• Evaluate for coronary artery disease
• Check for a heart attack
• Diagnose heart failure or damage
• Find abnormal electrical conduction
• Find enlargement of the heart's chambers
• Assess heart health before a procedure

You may need an ECG if you have symptoms that include chest pain, shortness of breath, or dizziness. It gives our team a picture of your heart health without using invasive measures.

Understanding an echocardiogram

An echocardiogram is another test that allows our team to assess your heart health. It's a diagnostic ultrasound that shows us how your heart is working.

During an echocardiogram, our team guides a probe over the chest to deliver high-frequency sound waves into the body. These sound waves bounce off the heart muscle to provide an ultrasound picture of the organ.

We may recommend an echocardiogram for various reasons, including to check:

• Shape and size of the heart muscle
• Movement and thickness of the heart's walls
• How the heart valves are functioning
• Heart movement during a heartbeat
• Strength of the heart pumping blood
• If you have a heart leaking backward or regurgitation
• Narrow heart valves, or stenosis
• Any growths or tumors in the heart

The echocardiogram is noninvasive, painless, and carries no risks, like an ECG. It gives us a better, in-depth picture of your heart health and how it works.

What is the difference between the two tests?

The main difference between an echocardiogram and an ECG is the technology that provides the results. For instance, the ECG utilizes electrodes to pick up the heart's electrical impulses, shown on a special paper that identifies your heart rhythm.

On the other hand, an echocardiogram uses sound waves through an ultrasound machine to give us a picture of the heart muscle. It can show us any irregularities in the heart while it's beating to diagnose specific problems.

Both tests help diagnose different problems within the heart, and we may use them together to get detailed information about your heart health. However, we get specific results from each test that we can't get from the other.

Do I need an ECG or an echocardiogram?

You may require only one or both tests depending on what we are looking for in your heart. Typically, the ECG is the first test because it's the easiest to perform and can show significant abnormalities in the heart's electrical system.

However, if the ECG isn't enough or we don't get any abnormal results, we may recommend an echocardiogram to examine the heart's structure. The echo uses sound waves to show us a detailed picture of the heart and anything causing problems or symptoms.

Our team carefully evaluates your health and symptoms to determine which test will give the better results or if you need both to get the complete picture of your heart health.

Call the Heart Clinic of Hammond team today to schedule an appointment with Dr. Mikdadi or Dr. Zayed for an ECG or echocardiogram. You may also request a consultation on our website.