What must one expect during an Electrocardiogram?

An electrocardiogram (EKG) is painless procedure in which a technician attaches soft, sticky patches called electrodes to the skin of your chest, arms, and legs. Around 12 patches are attached to detect your heart's electrical activity from many angles.

The procedure

When the patches are placed on your skin, you are asked to lie still on a table while the patches detect your heart's electrical signals. Electrodes are attached to a machine that records electric signals on graph paper or displays them on a screen. The test takes about 10 minutes.

The standard EKG, known as a resting 12-lead EKG, records only seconds of heart activity at a time. It will show a heart problem only if the problem is present during the time that the test is run.

Many heart problems are present all the time, and a resting 12-lead EKG is capable of detecting if there is anything wrong with your heart. However, some heart problems such as those related to an irregular heartbeat, can come and go.

You will be asked to not consume any medicine at least 24 hours from the test as it may change the results of this test. Moreover, you will be asked to remove all jewellery from your neck, arms and wrists.

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