Electrocardiograms

What are electrocardiograms?

Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) records your heart’s electrical activity. It’s the most common way to check how well your heart works.

The ECG procedure is simple and painless. Your Heart Clinic of Hammond provider attaches electrodes to your chest and often other places with large arteries, such as your arms and legs.

The electrodes send information about the electrical activity that makes your heart beat to a computer. Your doctor views the information on a monitor, displaying a series of wavy lines representing your heartbeat. 

What do electrocardiograms show?

An electrocardiogram provides vital information about several heart functions and characteristics, including:

Heart rate

Your Heart Clinic of Hammond doctor can manually check your pulse to measure your heart rate. However, an electrocardiogram is more precise.

Heart rhythm

ECG readings detect tachycardia (heart rate that’s too fast) or bradycardia (heart rate that’s too slow). Electrocardiograms also highlight irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias).  

Oxygen and blood supply

Electrocardiograms identify how well blood flows through your heart. They also help your doctor determine whether your heart’s getting enough oxygen.

Structural abnormalities

Electrocardiograms indicate the presence of abnormalities like heart defects and enlargements.

In addition, electrocardiograms are valuable for diagnosing heart attacks and showing the damage your heart experienced during an attack. Your doctor can also tell if you’ve had a heart attack in the past.

Why would I need an electrocardiogram?

Your Heart Clinic of Hammond doctor might perform an electrocardiogram if you’re experiencing symptoms of a heart problem, such as:

• Pounding or racing heart
• Irregular heartbeats
• Rapid pulse
• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness or lightheadedness
• Syncope (fainting)
• Weakness
• Extreme fatigue
• Inability to exercise

Sometimes a standard electrocardiogram can’t detect what’s wrong, especially if you only have occasional symptoms or they occur at specific times. It’s unlikely that the abnormality will show up during the few minutes it takes to do a standard ECG.

To overcome this problem, your Heart Clinic of Hammond doctor can give you a portable electrocardiogram device. A Holter monitor records your heart’s activity constantly for a day or two. An event monitor records what your heart’s doing when you experience symptoms.

A heart ultrasound (echocardiogram) or nuclear stress testing might also be necessary to diagnose some issues.

To find out more about the electrocardiogram facilities available at Heart Clinic of Hammond and how they help protect your heart health, call or book an appointment online today.