How do I find out what the results of an EKG mean?
483070
It is hard to understand an EKG (a series of lines sent by the electrisity in the heart) unless you are trained. The doctor explained it and you are verry lucky to be getting in to see a cardiologist in a week (it can take a month depending on where you live) The cardiologist will probably do another one and can explain it more, you would need to go through a lot of training or see a doctor to get another explaination or information.
1064807
http://www.anaesthetist.com/icu/organs/heart/ecg/period/isitrbbb.htm
658082
How did you find out about your blood pressure? If you didn't have it done at a doctors office, it could be a false reading. If you are really worried, I would go to a doc.
379056
Having the sensation of "skipped" or "extra" heart beats is quite common. To start, check your pulse for a full minute either at your wrist or neck. Usually you can tell if your heart rate is regular or if there are extra beats suddenly appearing. Sometimes it is a good idea for someone else to check for you as well (ie a "second opinion").\n\nHaving occasional "premature atrial contractions" is also quite common - these will give the sensation of either an extra beat or a skipped beat. \n\nIf these sensations continue or are impeding your daily functioning it is probably a good idea to go see your physician as an abnormal heart rhythm can be very serious.
398594
You may be talkig about a square, sine, and sawtooth (triangle) waveforms. They look like their names imply on an oscilloscope. They have no special significance other than they are descriptive of the type of AC wave they describe. It is like asking what are the different colors and what are their significance?
805809
Wow how paranoid are you?  You are thinking that your doctors would actually refer you, and perform an open heart surgery without it being indicated?  Do you think it is useful to be so distrustful of your health care providers?  I know doctors move quickly and don't take time to explain things.  Believe me, when you already are working very long days and nights and not keeping up, taking more time with each patient is difficult to do.  Nonetheless, doctors got into the business because they are there to help.  Ask questions if you don't understand.  Do your own research and inform yourself about some of the basic workings of your own physiology.  Its one thing to answer questions but sometimes as a health professional, you need to lay a whole ground work with a patient before your answer would make any sense to them.  This is very time consuming.  So learn about yourself and how your heart works if you don't already know.\nTry this link for reliable information\nhttp://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-disease/HB99999\n\nNow to answer your question about the "silent heart attack."  We do see this with patients frequently.  There are EKG changes that are consistent with certain parts of the cardiac muscle no longer working.  Other tests (e.g. echocardiograms, myograms)  can give similar results.  My personal feeling about this is that this is either chronically occluded small vessel disease or a congenital defect rather than a full blown event like we typically think of with a heart attack.  This makes the most sense in that over time small vessels become more and more blocked, progressively starving the heart muscle of oxygenated blood.  Eventually an area of the heart dies off.  It happens so slowly that there never is pain, shortness of breath, sweating, etc.  When the area of heart muscle dies, there are changes in monitoring devices like EKG's giving rise to the diagnosis of a "silent heart attack."  Whatever the source it means that there is a part of your heart that no longer contracts and pumps blood like it should.  At minimum this predisposes you for congestive heart failure...which has a high incidence of mortality or morbidity.  If I were you, I would listen to the medical people.  Your life and quality of life will depend on it.\n\nGood luck.
524680
The doctor who ordered this blood test should be able to walk through this with you.  At the very least, there should be a nursing line that you can call and ask.  \n\nMost blood results I have received have shown right on the print out what is too low, too high, or within the normal range.  This is a good starting place, but anything abnormal should really be discussed with your healthcare practitioner.
1086720
It is an electrocardiogram.  It  monitors the electrical activity of your heart, reveals your heart rhythm and your heart rate.  It is completely non invasive and not painful.  You will have to open your shirt so they can apply 12 leads (8 to your chest, 1 on each arm, and 1 on each leg) with sticky pads.  After the leads are applied they will ask you to lay still and it will record your hearts activity.  The whole process should take less than 5 minutes.
396690
call either the doctor's office or the lab.  I have a feeling, though, that the lab will ask you to get the results from the doctor.
683510
It is used to view the electrical activity in your heart. It makes a map of how electricity flows through your heart.\n\nIt can show if part of your heart is getting too little blood(angina) or no blood (a heart attack or "myocardial infarction (MI)").\n\nIt can also show if one or more of the hearts chambers are enlarged or thickened.\n\nIt is also how abnormal heart rhythms (like atrial fibrillation) are diagnosed.\n\n\nFor how simple and inexpensive it is you get a tremendous amount of very important information.\n\nIt one of my favorite tests.
303841
Normalization of inverted T wave is not an uncommon finding during exercise tests, it's clinical significance is still unclear. Exercise-induced T wave normalization was defined as "inverted T wave at rest becoming upright during exercise". \n\nThe T wave on an EKG represents the repolarization or resetting of the electrical cells in the bottom chambers of the heart. Reasons for inverted T waves are numerous and may include ischemia, Heart attack, hyperventilation, Anxiety, certain medications, infections around the heart, pulmonary embolus (blood clot in the lung), electrolyte disturbance (abnormalities in sodium, potassium levels) etc. When an EKG is viewed, all of the waves are evaluated, not just one in particular. With this in mind and considering that the rest of the waves on the EKG appeared to him/her without any sort of defect, is probably why he/she stated it was an essentially normal EKG. You should continue to have physical exams regularly.
65627
Arrythmia is Electical miscommunication inside your heart.\n\nIt makes ur heart racing, pounding.\n\nU might feel giddy, dizzy, chest pain or fainting attacks at times.\n\nIts diagnosed by EKG.\n\nSometimes its fatal.\n\nSo regular follow up is very essential.
1069391
EKG, Electrocardiogram, Treadmill, Nuclear Medicine Test, Angiogram.
1063398
There's some kind of test in which a doctor can give you mild shocks and stick a needle in at certain points on your arm, for instance, and he can read the electric waves from the nerves in the that area. He can tell if it's coming from the neck, back or if it's carpal tunnel. I've had it done and it sounds a lot worse than it is--and I'm a big baby with stuff like this. I wish I knew the name.
1106877
Without a clinical history on why an EKG was done and without other related cardiac risk factors,  I find it hard to interpret what an upside down t wave means.  It can be normal then again what does the EKG look it.  Is the upside t wave occurring on multiple leads and which ones.  How does the qrs look like.  What did the doctor say?  I would say this is pretty hard to accurately interpret without the above info.
303667
Yours is a good question.\n\nUnfortunately, to answer it one would need to know more about your general health: information obtained through a complete physical exam, such as:\n\nBody weight, resting pulse, resting blood pressure, etc.\nAny underlying diseases.\nWhat medications if any you are currently taking.\nWhat your baseline EKG looks like.\n\nThe list is quite long, frankly.\n\nI would suggest that you ignore any answers on this web site that give you a specific number.  At this point without the above information, any such suggestions would be dangerous.\n\nMake an appointment an see a doctor you trust, be as honest as you can about your medical history and allow him or her to perform a complete physical examination.  \n\nYou will have your answer.
793733
Wow! That could be complicated....see: http://www.icsroscher.de/HeartScope.htm\nYet, an experiment using "cheap and cheerful" technology is described on http://www.picotech.com/experiments/calculating_heart_rate/\nwhich makes use of a (relatively) low cost data logger http://www.drdaq.com/products.html\nwhich plugs directly into the parallel port of your PC, see  http://www.picotech.com/applications/ecg.html\nHope this helps....