ECG????

I had an ECG on friday due to the fact that I keep having palpitations, however I did not have a palpitation during the ECG! So could this mean there is still a problem? Also does anyone know what an ECG actually does and can tell?? i.e could it tell if I had a heart murmer or something?
Thanks everyone :)

I have never had a palpitation during an ECG but apparently you don't have to have a palpitation while the ECG is on in order to determine whether they are benign or not. I understand that if a palpitation was in anyway serious then there would be an underlying condition which would present itself on an ECG. Murmurs can usually be detected on ECG's but there is a girl on here that had a couple of ECG's and the murmur only turned up on the last one. So I guess it's possible to go undetected. Palpitations are very common amongst anxiety sufferers, me being one that's affected.

Have a look at this website. I've found it really helpful regarding information on palpitations and there is lots of people on there that suffer the same symptoms.

http://palps.chemicalforums.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl

:)

Hi there
I'm the girl! Sorry I really thought I should reply just to let you know, I had three ecgs none of which showed a murmur. I had another one on Friday which showed something I don't know exactly what but the cardiologist listened to my heart and heard a murmur so now I have to have an echo, I keep hearing that the palps have to be caught on an ECG but any serious irregularities would show up on the ECG that cause palps that would need further testing so don't worry, also I was having a panic attack at the time so this could maybe have something to do with my ECG being abit funny but tbh I'm unsure Plus remember a murmur is different to a palp xx

Hi CJA,

An ECG is used to show how your health professional how the heart works. It does this by showing the graph as eletrical impluses that move along the heart to make it pump. Your GP may have told you about the PQRST waves, if not these are how the heart works. In the P wave this is when the heart starts to work and an electrical impulse comes from yoru brain to a specialised cell called your Pacemaker cell and this starts the heart beat.

From then the Q wave shows the movement of the blood from the top of your left side of the heart called your left atrium through your tricuspid value and then into your left ventricle.

The R wave shows the blood being pumped up via the aorta and round the body.

The S wave shows the way in which the blood comes back through vena cava and then into the right side of your heart. Again the heart enters the right atrium, through the bicuspid valve and then into the right ventricle.

The final wave, The T wave shows the whole heart resetting to start the process all over again.

If the T wave is longer or inverted then this could mean that the heart may have an issue restarting its process. Palpatations are very common and are easily treated with medication called Beta Blockers such as Atenolol or Propranolol. When you see your GP he/she will go through your results and what they plan to do to help you.

If you have any questions then let me know.

Dave

An ECG effectively looks at the electicity of the heart at different angles. It is a cheap and simple diagnostic test and can be interpreted immediately. Murmurs can usually be heard on a stethescope by a dr. My collegue was getting terrible palpitations and had to give up caffeine in all forms and now doesnt get any.
Hope you feel better.

a ecg will show if there is a problem.my mums cardoligist said he can tell by just looking what the probelm is.