Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Medical prescription required

This test always requires a prescription from your doctor. Bring this prescription with you on the day of the test.

Purpose

An electrocardiogram (ECG) shows:

• Heart rhythm: regular or irregular.
• Heart rate: is it beating too fast or too slow.
• Thickening of your heart muscle.
• Past heart attacks you have experienced.

Late potentials ECG

A variant of the ECG where signals are recorded over several minutes.

Procedure

• Removal of clothing from your upper body.
• Several electrodes or suction cups are placed on your chest, arms, and legs.
• The electrodes are connected to the ECG device using cables.
• The device measures your heart’s electrical activity and displays it as a graph.