What Ailments Can EKG Machines Detect?
When you enter the hospital or emergency room experiencing chest pains or other cardiac issue, they’ll hook you up to an EKG machine. These small and inexpensive diagnostic tools are found in hospitals and doctor’s offices throughout the world.
It’s one of the most common diagnostic tools you’ll see, but what exactly does it do? What can it help diagnose or treat? The EKG machine has saved countless lives with its ability to diagnose cardiac and other conditions.
Overview of EKG Machines
An EKG machine’s primary diagnostic capability is to read heart rhythms and provide a way for doctors to see those rhythms.
Doctor’s connect sensors to your body that read the heart rhythm and electrical activity of the heart chambers. Those signals are sent to an amplifier via wires and increased in strength. It’s then sent to the output that creates a printout for doctors to read.
Modern EKG machines can send information via email or wirelessly to cell phones. This allowed doctors to read EKG charts from anywhere or at the comfort of their own computer or tablet. The technology has been around for decades, but today’s EKG machines have far more capabilities.
What Can EKG Machines Help Diagnose?
EKG machines provide vital information for doctors to help diagnose a variety of heart related issues from the minor to the deadly.
Arrhythmia
Arrhythmia is simply a change in the normal rhythm or electrical pulses created by the heart. If the impulses happen to fast, slow or irregularly, then it can impact rhythm. It can make the heart beat faster, slower or erratically.
It’s associated with tachycardia, bradycardia and other issues. While it may not be an immediate threat to your life, the heart needs to create a steady rhythm in order to deliver blood to the body effectively. If the body doesn’t get enough blood or it’s not steady, then it can lead or organ problems and even death.
Ischemia
There are blood vessels throughout the body that deliver blood to the various organs. As we get older, it possible for these vessels to become inflamed or clogged. As the space in the vessels lessen, it gets harder to pump blood through the veins and leads to ischemia.
If these vessels should close, then it can create a heart attack or stroke. EKG machines can detect how hard the heart is working to pump blood.
Heart Attack
A heart attack is often characterized by intense chest pains, but that’s not always the case. If you’re having pain down your arm or other area that is constant or comes and goes, then you could be having a heart attack.
A heart attack happens when blood flow to the heart is impeded. Heart attacks can be fatal or cause severe damage to the heart muscle. An EKG can help determine if you’re having a heart attack and if there are any parts of the heart that are damaged.
EKGs are also good for determining if you’re a candidate for a heart attack.
EKG Machines Save Lives
There is no doubt that EKG machines save lives every day. Without their ability to read the electrical impulses of the heart, many of the above problems listed above would be difficult to diagnose and treat. At the very least, they would require more expensive and in-depth testing.
The EKG machine isn’t complex and that’s one of its best selling points. It is small and can be wheeled from room to room. There are even smaller ones that can read heart rhythms for 24 hours while the person goes about their day. Portable versions are placed in doctor’s offices and ambulances.
Unlike many other testing platforms, you don’t have to go to it, it comes to you. Doctors can read the printout while standing next to you in the hospital bed.
Check Out Our Reasonable Priced EKG Machines
Cardiology Shop is a leading provider of EKG machines and EKG machine accessories. If you’re looking for a new machine or just need to refill the printout paper, we have everything you need and much more.
If you’re interested in learning more about EKG machines, how they work or cost, then feel free to contact us.
