The Electrocardiogram (ECG) at rest is a simple and safe test, free of adverse effects for the patient in which we can observe the electrical activity of the heart.
This electrical activity is recorded from the patient’s body surface by means of electrodes and is drawn on a paper through a graphic representation by waves that represent the electrical stimuli of the atria and the ventricles.
How is the test performed
To perform the test the patient must be relaxed, without speaking and lying down.
Before starting the test, we place10 electrodes on the ankles, wrists and chest that will provide us with information about the electrical activity of the heart that occurs in each beat from different points of the body and thus detect any underlying cardiac pathology.
* According to the patient it will be necessary to shave the hair from that area.
Once the electrodes are placed, we measure the rhythm and regularity of the beats, the size and position of the atria and ventricles, as well as any alteration that the heart may suffer and the effects that certain drugs or implanted devices (pacemakers) may have on it.
The electrocardiogram of a healthy person has a particular path. In cases where changes appear in that path, we analyze them to determine if there is a problem.
Alterations in the path are essential for the detection and the analysis of cardiac arrhythmias. It is also very useful in acute episodes of coronary disease, such as myocardial infarction.
Who is it for?
It is a medical act that we perform to all those people who want to practice any sport activity with the aim of ruling out any pathology that contraindicates sports practice.
On many occasions we find patients with disorders that are functional (which are part of the normal function of the heart, are not pathological), either because they are children (childhood disorders), or because they are athletes who accumulate a lot of training (what generates a remodeling of the heart muscle and gives rise to the so-called athlete’s heart) or by genetic issues.
The study of precordial pain or the control of various heart diseases require the performance of a basic electrocardiogram. Certificates of fitness for sports also require an ECG at rest to rule out pathologies that could involve cardiovascular risk during sports.