#PICS OF A CARDIOGRAPH PORTABLE#
It's a portable EKG that checks the electrical activity of your heart for 1 to 2 days, 24-hours a day. Types of EKG Testsīesides the standard EKG, your doctor may recommend other kinds: Your doctor will keep your EKG patterns on file so that they can compare them to tests you get in the future. It takes about 10 minutes to attach the electrodes and complete the test, but the actual recording takes only a few seconds. This is called a "resting" EKG, although the same test may be used to check your heart while you exercise. If you're a guy, you may need to have your chest hair shaved to allow a better connection.ĭuring the test you'll lie flat while a computer creates a picture, on graph paper, of the electrical impulses that move through your heart.
#PICS OF A CARDIOGRAPH SKIN#
What Happens During an Electrocardiogram?Ī technician will attach 10 electrodes with adhesive pads to the skin of your chest, arms, and legs.
Waller’s dog, Jimmy, connected for electrogram with feet in saline. His dog Jimmy often helped him demonstrate the electrogram by placing his paws in glass jars of saline. Patients (and Jimmy) used to dip limbs in saline.Īugustus Desiré Waller (1856 – 1922) was a British physiologist who used a capillary electrometer to record the first human electrocardiogram.
The Science of Common Things: A Familiar Explanation of the First Principles of Physical Science, 1859.
Scientists measured electrical activity in frogs, and these creatures aided in many discoveries that eventually led to today's EKG machines. This technology is used every day, but it took a lot of scientists, inventors, and even frogs to get to where EKGs are today.įrom frogs to buckets of salt water, here are a few facts to highlight the weird history of EKGs. The word electrocardiograph is derived from the Greek electro, meaning related to electrical activity kardia, meaning heart and graph, meaning "to write". EKG rhythms provide important data for the diagnosis of heart conditions.Ĭertified EKG Technicians (CETs) administer EKGs during physical exams, when cardiovascular problems are suspected, or in preparation for surgery.