ECGs
Life is like an EKG. Without the ups and downs, you’re not living - Debra Evans
image by: Rayhan Clinic
HWN Recommends
How Willem Einthoven gave doctors a window on the heart
If a doctor has ever placed electrodes on your skin to record a trace of your heartbeat, you have Willem Einthoven to thank. His invention, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has remained in use for over 100 years, and is still one of the most widely used diagnostic tools in medicine.
He became interested in the electrical activity of the heart after seeing a demonstration of a crude electrocardiogram device developed by Augustus Waller, the British physiologist. It was based on the capillary electrometer, one of the first instruments to detect electric waves, consisting of a thin glass cylinder filled with mercury and sulphuric acid.
Waller’s device did not produce very accurate…
Resources
A (not so) brief history of electrocardiography.
Find out how electrocuting chickens (1775), getting laboratory assistants to put their hands in buckets of saline (1887), taking the ECG of a horses and then observing their open heart surgey (1912), induction of indiscriminate angina attacks (1931), and hypothermic dogs (1953) have helped to improve our understanding of the ECG as a clinical tool. And why is the ECG labelled PQRST (1895)?
Doctors Told Not To Order Electrocardiograms For Low-Risk Patients
Doctors shouldn't routinely perform electrocardiograms on patients at low risk for heart disease, an influential federal panel is recommending. While an ECG test of the heart's electrical activity is safe and inexpensive, the benefits for patients at low risk of heart disease are very low and the results can trigger possibly dangerous, unnecessary follow-up testing and treatment, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Heart Screening For Teens May Cause More Problems Than It Solves
Dozens of not-for-profit organizations have formed in the past decade to promote free or low-cost heart screenings for teens. The groups often claim such tests save lives by finding abnormalities that might pose a risk of sudden cardiac death. But the efforts are raising concerns. There's no evidence that screening adolescents with electrocardiograms prevents deaths.
Smartwatches Are Changing the Purpose of the EKG
Wearables help cast the medical test as a talisman of health-care competence.
The future of the electrocardiogram
The fact that the standard ECG is readily available for more than 7 decades in the clinical practice makes it attractive for big data analysis algorithms. Per year hundreds of millions of ECGs are recorded worldwide. These enormous amounts of ECG data are also more and more available in digital format. Based on this vast amount of digital ECG data artificial algorithms are able to detect diseased or potentially diseased hearts just from the ECG...
Automatic diagnosis of the 12-lead ECG using a deep neural network
These results indicate ECG analysis based on DNNs, previously studied in a single-lead setup, generalizes well to 12-lead exams, taking the technology closer to the standard clinical practice.
EKG Screening for College Athletes
Those are legitimate concerns, but Dr. Hainline’s original proposal was the right one: We should begin targeted screening of some groups of college athletes — starting with those in sports that recent research indicates pose a high cardiovascular risk, such as basketball and soccer. The N.C.A.A. is currently developing guidelines for managing sudden cardiac arrest in its athletes. Expected to be released later this year, the guidelines are likely to endorse a standardized questionnaire on medical and family history, more training in CPR and increased access to automatic defibrillators. However, they will almost surely not include EKG screening.
Your Heartbeat Could Be a Better Password Than Whatever You’re Using Now
People are notorious for using very bad passwords, so maybe we should be using our heartbeats to unlock our sensitive data instead. Researchers at Binghamton University in New York have found a way to use a patient's electrocardiograph (ECG or EKG) as the key to access their electronic health records. ECGs measure the heart's electrical activity via a biosensor attached to the skin.
How To Read An ECG
Interpreting ECG’s is trickier than you think. One must have a system, preferably one that will stand up to the pummel of ED situations and environmental influences: time pressures, incomplete information, typhoons, that sort of thing.
Should athletes get EKGs to prevent sudden death?
To identify young athletes at risk for sudden cardiac arrest, it’s better to use a questionnaire and electrocardiogram (EKG) than the questionnaire and physical exam recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA).
How Willem Einthoven gave doctors a window on the heart
If a doctor has ever placed electrodes on your skin to record a trace of your heartbeat, you have Willem Einthoven to thank. His invention, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has remained in use for over 100 years, and is still one of the most widely used diagnostic tools in medicine.
Introducing Stitches!
Your Path to Meaningful Connections in the World of Health and Medicine
Connect, Collaborate, and Engage!
Coming Soon - Stitches, the innovative chat app from the creators of HWN. Join meaningful conversations on health and medical topics. Share text, images, and videos seamlessly. Connect directly within HWN's topic pages and articles.