Getting the right information about a person's overall health status is vital in saving him/her from the risk of sudden death. People who have lost someone from heart attack knows the value of gathering this essential information in enabling them to take the necessary actions to prevent exacerbation of the patient's heart's status so as to avoid complications or even sudden heart attack. According to the recent data provided by the World Health Organization, an estimated 17.9 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2016 which represents about 31per cent of all global deaths. Of these deaths, 85 per cent are due to stroke and heart attack.

Beyond the regular exercise and proper diet that one must religiously do, it is imperative to always have a regular visit to your most trusted physician in order to make sure that your heart still functions properly. In order to make sure that you are not suffering from any type or cardiovascular diseases, one of the tests that your doctor may conduct is an Electrocardiogram or commonly referred to as ECG.

What is Electrocardiogram?

Electrocardiogram, or ECG and sometimes referred to as an EKG, is a medical procedure utilized by medical experts if they want to assess a patient's heart activity. This medical test is fairly simple, noninvasive and painless whereby through the use of an electrocardiogram, the electrical activity in the heart will be captured and recorded in a computer.

Basically, electrocardiogram studies the electrical and muscular activity of the heart by analyzing the component of the waveform. The medical test likewise includes the assessment of rhythm, heart rate measurement, observing P-wave forms, calculation of ECG intervals and segments, and the determination of other relevant waves.

Electrocardiogram is primarily conducted as one of the first evaluation tests for patients suffering from shortness of breath or chest pain. The test helps in determining whether the symptoms suffered by the patients is due to the narrowing of blood vessels to the heart muscle or due to acute myocardial infarction. If you have been advised to undergo this type of medical test, your physician is looking for the following data:

1. Heart's Activity

Your doctor will run the test in order to assess whether your heart's activity is slow, normal, fast or irregular; this can be ascertained by evaluating the electrical wave that travels through the heart by calculating the time intervals on the electrocardiogram. If the electrocardiogram device captures and records a SA node that is less than 50 beats per minute, the patient is suspected to have bradycardia as the data gathered is lower than the normal heart rate. A patient is suffering from tachycardia, on the other hand, if the SA node has a heart rate faster than 100 beats per minute that are above the average rate.

2. Another information will be assessed by determining the extent of electrical activity passing through the heart muscle. The test determines whether the patient's heart or part thereof is enlarged and/or exhausted

How is Electrocardiogram Conducted?

The procedure proper is very simple and does not involve an incision or any type of invasive procedures. The medical examination uses an electrocardiogram device which assessed the electrical and muscular functions of the human heart.

If you'll be undergoing an electrocardiogram, your doctor will place a total of 10 electrodes that have adhesive pads on your body in order to detect electrical impulses generated by your heart. These electrodes will help your physician to have an electrical view of your heart. Four of these physical leads will be attached to your limbs while the remaining six leads will be placed to your chest. It is highly suggested for male patients to have their chest hair shaved of wax before going through the medical procedure so that the physician will get a better connection.

After placing all the electrodes to their proper area, your physician will request you to lie flat so they can conduct the gathering of data. The information of data impulses captured by the electrodes which are attached to your body will be recorded to the computer as a photograph on a graph.

After the medical process which takes about 30 minutes, your physician will remove the electrodes one by one. The yielded results will be kept as a reference for any potential test that will be conducted to you.  It you're looking to buy ECG equipment then look no further than Emech Medical for trusted high quality medical supplies in Australia.