Electrocardiogram (ECG) – Treatment, Effects & Risks

The main features of today’s electrocardiogram (ECG) can be traced back to the 19th century. In the nineteenth century, the Italian doctor and researcher Matteo Carleucci and the English physiologist Augustus Désirée Waller developed the basics of the ECG diagnostic method, which is still used and used today.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Dutch physician Willem Einthoven further refined the still crude medical equipment and made it suitable for use in clinics.

The electrocardiogram (ECG) enables an accurate assessment of the position and condition of the heart. In this context, it also measures the patient’s heart rate and heart rhythm.

Application and function

The first devices of the electrocardiogram (ECG) for measuring the heart activity still measured the heart functions very imprecisely and used chemical solutions to record the electrical impulses of the heart. State-of-the-art medical devices have developed from this over the past hundred years.The patient’s body is fitted with suction cups in several places, which are connected to the lead wires of the ECG machine. The contractions and beats of the heart are recorded on a recorder or directly on the monitor. The doctor can use these fever curves to detect irregularities in heart activity . He can diagnose narrowing and widening, but also abnormal heart shapes.

What does the patient have to consider in advance?

No patient need be afraid of an electrocardiogram (ECG) examination. He bare the upper body and the doctor or his assistant attaches the suction cups of the measuring device in several places. An electrocardiogram does not cause pain and is usually not dangerous.

If the doctor gave the patient specific instructions in advance, they should definitely follow them in order to help shape the examination result as precisely as possible. Every family doctor, almost every specialist doctor and every clinic has an electrocardiogram.

The patient may need to stop taking certain medications before the test or at an earlier time determined by the doctor. In this way, the doctor avoids receiving inaccurate examination results and, on the other hand, does not expose the patient to any additional stress.

Resting ECG

There are different ways to perform an EKG. The routine cardiological examination includes the normal resting ECG, which is performed while lying down and which generally lasts no longer than a few minutes. With this simple and risk-free basic diagnosis, measuring electrodes are distributed over the patient’s skin. These provide pictorial and meaningful data on the electrical activities of the heart muscle. Therefore, this examination can provide valuable information about diseases of the heart muscle (e.g. circulatory disorders, recent heart attack). The doctor usually checks the ECG immediately and may inform the patient of the result and the resulting diagnosis immediately or on the same day.

Holter ECG

If the doctor is unable to determine any pathological changes in cardiac activity, despite the patient’s heart problems, he may recommend a long-term ECG for further clarification. He will attach a portable, small EKG machine to the patient’s body, which the patient will wear for the next twenty-four hours, or longer at the doctor’s discretion. This makes it easier to detect hidden or irregular heart problems. At the same time, the patient keeps a meticulous diary during this time, which the doctor can later compare with the recorded ECG. In this way he can find out whether his patient’s symptoms occur at rest or during certain physical or mental activities.

Stress ECG

Another variant of the electrocardiogram is the so-called stress ECG. Here, too, the patient is connected to various parts of the body with the necessary cables. But this ECG does not take place lying down, but the patient has to be physically active during the recording under medical supervision. He usually sits on a special bicycle, the ergometer, or runs on a treadmill.

The doctor already checks the results during the examination and takes care not to expect too much from the patient.

Based on the examination results, the doctor treating you can rule out nervous disorders of the heart as far as possible. The causes of heart pain or cardiac arrhythmia are not always of a physical nature.

In the modern industrial age, psychosomatic illnesses have increased massively.

If it turns out that so-called psycho-vegetative disorders are responsible for the heart problems, the doctor can also treat this patient according to his underlying condition. He also takes these complaints very seriously.

Risks, dangers and side effects

Normally, the electrocardiogram is one of the safest examinations of all. Complications such as shortness of breath or tachycardia can only occur with a stress ECG in people with severe heart disease. That is why no patient is left alone during a stress ECG and the doctor will stop the examination at the slightest sign of complications. In very rare cases, there have already been recurrent or first-time heart attacks , cardiac arrhythmias or acute angina pectoris attacks (narrowing of the coronary arteries).