An electrocardiogram also called an EKG can be used to monitor the beats of your heart through an electrical impulse produced from cells in the upper chamber of your heart. An EKG electronically records these signals so that a doctor can look for a pattern in your heart beats and rhythms in order to diagnose any heart conditions or coronary heart disease.
This noninvasive, painless test monitors heart beats through electrodes small plastic discs - that are attached to your chest. The electrodes are applied to your body with a gel and attached by wires to an EKG machine. The electrodes conduct the electrical currents of your heart to the machine for recording your hearts rhythm, beats and electrical conduction.
With each beat of your heart, an electrical impulse travels through your heart. This electrical impulse causes waves of contraction in the heart, pumping blood out. An EKG shows the timing of the heart squeezing and pumping blood out of the top and lower chambers.
The first wave is from the right and left upper chambers of the heart. This is called a 'P wave' and it follows a flat line to the heart's bottom chambers. In the right and left bottom chambers the 'QRS complex,' the next wave, begins. The final wave, the 'T wave,' represents the heart's ventricles returning to a resting state. Each of these electrical waves is recorded on an EKG to show if it is normal or if there is evidence of coronary heart disease.
