When I see patients in the clinic, I ask them to do an EKG, but many of them say I just did it a few years ago or a few days ago, so why do I need to do it? Others say I’ve had it done many times and it didn’t show up, so why do I have to do it? Here is a brief introduction to the significance of different ECGs.
1. General ECG (including onset and non-onset ECG).
The easiest, fastest and most economical. It can understand your ECG situation at that time and determine whether you have myocardial ischemia, myocardial infarction, or arrhythmia. The drawback is that if the disease is not committed at this time, or the attack has just passed, it will not reflect the actual situation of the disease. Jing Yu Ma, Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine
2. Ambulatory electrocardiogram.
It is a better choice for patients whose episodes have already passed when they go to the hospital, or for patients who often have episodes at night, when they are working, or when they are walking, and for patients whose problems cannot be detected by the general ECG. Because this kind of ECG can record your ECG for 24 hours, it can reflect your ECG situation for a day and a night, and has a higher diagnostic rate for diseases than the general ECG.
3.Exercise test ECG: For patients who cannot be checked by the above two methods, you can do ECG exercise test.
It is to let you walk on the treadmill and gradually increase the speed, so that the ECG of those symptoms such as chest tightness, chest pain and panic when working, running or working more can be recorded, which can improve the diagnosis rate of exertional myocardial ischemia.
4. Esophageal electrocardiogram.
It can be a good differential diagnosis for complex arrhythmias. It can also be used to treat rapid arrhythmias that are difficult to be treated by drugs through esophageal electrodes. The disadvantage is that the electrodes need to be inserted into the esophagus near the atrium, and sometimes the patient may feel nauseous and uncomfortable, but they adapt quickly.
Each of the above ECG has its own advantages and disadvantages, which can be combined with each other to make up for each other’s shortcomings in diagnosis and treatment.