How to remove an ECG: a description of the algorithm, a scheme of electrode application and recommendations

The heart is the most important organ in the human body. It is often compared to a motor, which is not surprising, because the main function of the heart is the constant pumping of blood in the vessels of our body. The heart works 24 hours a day! But it happens that it does not cope with its functions due to illness. Of course, it is necessary to monitor overall health, including the health of the heart, but this is not always available in our time and not always.

A bit of history about the appearance of the

ECG As early as the middle of the 19th century, the healers began to think about how to track the work, detect abnormalities in time and prevent the terrible consequences of the functioning of the diseased heart. Already at that time, the physicians discovered that electrical phenomena were occurring in the contracting cardiac muscle, and began to conduct the first observations and studies on animals. Scientists from Europe began working on the creation of a special apparatus or a unique technique for monitoring the work of the heart, and finally the world's first electrocardiograph was created. All this time, science has not stood still, thus, and in the modern world use this unique and already improved apparatus on which to produce the so-called electrocardiography, it is also called abbreviated ECG.This method of recording the biocurrents of the heart will be discussed in the article.

ECG procedure

To date, this is absolutely painless and accessible to everyone procedure. ECG can be done in almost any medical institution. Consult your family doctor and he will tell you in detail what the procedure is for, how to take an ECG and where it can be taken in your city.

Short description

Consider the steps of how to shoot ECG.The algorithm is as follows:

1. Preparing the patient for future manipulation. Laying it on the couch, the health worker asks you to relax and not to strain. Remove all unnecessary items, if any, and may interfere with the recording of the cardiograph. Relieve from clothing the necessary areas of the skin.
2. Begin to superimpose the electrodes strictly in a certain sequence and the order of the overlapping electrodes.
3. Connect the device to work under all rules.
4. After the device is connected and ready to go, start recording.
5. Remove paper with a recorded cardiac electrocardiogram.
6. Give the result of the ECG to the patient or doctor on hand for subsequent decoding.

Preparing to remove the ECD

Before you learn how to shoot an ECG, we'll look at what actions need to be taken to prepare the patient.

The ECG device is in every medical institution, it is in a separate room with a couch for the convenience of the patient and the medical staff. The room should be light and cozy, with an air temperature of +22. .. + 24 degrees Celsius. Since it is possible to remove the ECG correctly only if the patient is completely calm, this situation is very important for carrying out this manipulation.

They place the examinee on a medical couch. In the lying position, the body relaxes easily, which is important for the future recording of the cardiograph and for evaluating the work of the heart itself. Before applying electrodes to the ECG, moistened with medical alcohol with a cotton swab, it is necessary to process the desired areas of the patient's hands and feet. Repeated treatment of these areas is carried out with physiological saline or special medical gel intended for these purposes. Patient should remain calm during the recording of the cardiograph, breathe smoothly, moderately, do not worry.

How to remove ECG correctly: overlay electrodes

It is necessary to know in what order it is necessary to apply electrodes. For the convenience of personnel carrying out this manipulation, the inventors of the ECG device determined 4 colors for the electrodes: red, yellow, green and black. They are superimposed in this order and in no other way, otherwise the ECG will not be expedient. To confuse them is simply unacceptable. Therefore, medical personnel who work with the ECG device undergo special training with the subsequent passing of the exam and obtaining an admission or certificate that allows him to work with this device. The health worker in the ECG cabinet, according to his working instructions, must clearly know the locations of the electrodes and correctly execute the sequence.

So, the electrodes for hands and feet look like big clamps, but do not worry, the clamp is absolutely painless on the limbs, these clips are of different colors and are superimposed on certain body locations as follows:

• Red is the wrist of the right hand.
• Yellow is the wrist of the left hand.
• Green - the left leg.
• Black - right foot.

Superimposition of thoracic electrodes

Breast electrodes in our time are of different types, it all depends on the manufacturer of the device itself ECG.They are disposable and reusable. Disposable are more convenient to use, do not leave unpleasant traces of irritation on the skin after removal. But if there are no disposable, then reusable, they are similar in form to the hemispheres and have the property of sucking. This property is necessary for a clear statement in the right place with the subsequent fixation at the right time.

A medical professional who already knows how to remove the ECG is located to the right of the patient at the couch in order to properly apply the electrodes. It is necessary, as already mentioned, to pre-treat the skin of the patient's breast with alcohol, then with saline or medical gel. Each thoracic electrode is marked. To make it clearer how to remove the ECG, the electrode overlay scheme is presented below.

We proceed to apply the electrodes to the chest:

1. We first find the patient's 4th rib and place the first electrode under the rib, on which the digit 1 stands. In order for the electrode to successfully reach the desired place, its suction property should be used.
2. The 2nd electrode is also placed under the 4th rib, only on the left side.
3. Then proceed to apply not the 3rd, but immediately the 4th electrode. It is superimposed under the 5th edge.
4. The electrode number 3 must be located between the 2nd and 4th edge.
5. The 5th electrode is installed on the 5th edge.
6. The 6th electrode is applied at the level with the 5th, but a couple of centimeters closer to the couch.

Before switching on the device for ECG recording, we once again check the correctness and reliability of the applied electrodes. Only after this you can turn on the electrocardiograph. Before this, you need to set the paper speed and adjust other parameters. During recording, the patient must be in a state of complete rest! At the end of the machine, you can remove the paper with a cardiograph entry and release the patient.

We remove the ECG for children

Because there are no age limits for ECG, children can also be removed from the ECG.Do this procedure in the same way as adults, starting at any age, including the period of newborns( as a rule, at such an early age, ECG is done solely to eliminate suspicions of heart disease).

The only difference between how to remove an ECG for an adult and a child is that the child needs a special approach, he needs to explain and show everything, to calm down if necessary. Electrodes on the body of the child are fixed in the same places as in adults, and should correspond to the age of the child. How to apply electrodes to the electrocardiogram on the body, you are already familiarized. In order not to agitate a small patient, it is important to ensure that the child does not move during the procedure, to support him in every way and explain everything that happens.

Very often pediatricians in the appointment of ECG recommend additional tests to children, with physical activity or with the appointment of a particular drug. These tests are conducted in order to timely detect abnormalities in the work of the child's heart, correctly diagnose a particular heart disease, timely appoint a treatment or dispel the fears of parents and doctors.

How to remove the ECG.Scheme

In order to read correctly the recording on the paper tape, which the ECG apparatus gives us at the end of the procedure, it is absolutely necessary to have a medical education. The record should be carefully studied by a doctor - therapist or cardiologist, in order to timely and accurately establish a diagnosis to the patient. So, what can an incomprehensible curve curve tell us about, consisting of prongs, individual segments with intervals? Let's try to figure this out.

The record will analyze how regular the contractions of the heart, will reveal the heart rate, the focus of excitation, the conductive capacity of the heart muscle, the determination of the heart relative to the axes, the state of the so-called heart medulla in medicine.

Immediately after reading the cardiogram, an experienced doctor will be able to diagnose and prescribe the treatment or give the necessary recommendations that will significantly speed up the recovery process or save against serious complications, and most importantly - the time-produced ECG can save a person's life.

It should be taken into account that the cardiogram of an adult differs from a cardiogram of a child or a pregnant woman.

Does the ECG remove pregnant women

In what cases are they prescribed to undergo an electrocardiogram of the heart to a pregnant woman? If the patient complains of obstetrics and gynecology at the next appointment, the patient complains of chest pain, shortness of breath, large fluctuations in blood pressure control, headaches, fainting, dizziness, then most likely an experienced doctor will prescribe this procedure in time to reject bad suspicions and avoid unpleasantconsequences for the health of the future mother and her baby. There are no contraindications for ECG during pregnancy.

Some recommendations before the planned procedure for ECG

Before removing the ECG, the patient must be instructed about what conditions must be met on the eve and on the day of removal.

• On the eve of recommend avoiding nerve stress, and the duration of sleep should be at least 8 hours.
• On the day of delivery, a small breakfast is required from food, which is easily digested, a mandatory condition - not to overeat.
• Exclude for 1 day products that affect the work of the heart, such as strong coffee or tea, spicy seasonings, alcoholic beverages, and smoking.
• Do not apply cream and lotions to the skin of the hands, feet, chest, and fatty acids whose effects can degrade the conductivity of the medical gel on the skin before applying the electrodes.
• Absolute calmness is necessary before passing the ECG and during the procedure itself.
• It is compulsory to exclude physical activity on the day of the procedure.
• Before the procedure it is necessary to sit quietly for about 15-20 minutes, the breathing is calm, uniform.

If the subject has severe shortness of breath, then he needs to undergo an ECG without lying down, and sitting, because it is in this position of the body that the device can clearly record cardiac arrhythmia.

Cardiologists recommend to undergo the procedure to all people, without exception, after 40 years once a year.

Certainly, there are conditions in which to carry out an electrocardiogram categorically it is impossible, namely:

• With acute myocardial infarction.
• Unstable angina pectoris.
• Heart failure.
• Some types of arrhythmias of unclear etiology.
• Severe forms of aortic stenosis.
• Thyroid syndrome( pulmonary embolism).
• Bindings of the aortic aneurysm.
• Acute inflammatory diseases of the heart muscle and pericardial muscles.
• Severe infectious diseases.
• Severe mental illness.

ECG with mirror arrangement of internal organs

Mirror arrangement of internal organs implies their arrangement in a different order, when the heart is not on the left, but on the right. The same applies to other organs. This is a rather rare phenomenon, nevertheless it occurs. When a patient with a mirror arrangement of the internal organs is prescribed to undergo an ECG, he should warn the nurse about his specialty, which will perform this procedure. Young professionals working with people with a mirror arrangement of internal organs, then the question arises: how to remove the ECG?On the right( the removal algorithm is basically the same), the electrodes are placed on the body in the same order that the usual patients would be placed to the left.

Protect your health and the health of your loved ones!