The next time you go in to see your heart doctor in Hillcrest, Nyack, Spring Valley, Rockland County, Chestnut Ridge, Monsey, NY, and the surrounding areas, they might want to hook up several wires to you to perform an EKG test. This is a non-invasive test that can tell your doctor at Cardiology of Hudson Valley a number of different things. And if you have several of them over many years, it can help to paint a picture of the health of your heart over time. The nice thing about an EKG test, beyond the non-invasive nature of it, is the fact that it only takes a few minutes of time. This makes it an ideal diagnostic test for nearly everyone, and yet it can provide important insights into your heart’s performance as well as reveal issues that you may not even be aware of. Contact us today to schedule your EKG test.
Issues That an EKG Test Can Reveal
To start with, an EKG measures your heart rhythm as well as the rate. This can show either a regular pattern or an irregular pattern to the heartbeat. An EKG may be able to show past heart attack damage, but this will need to be confirmed with other evidence. If you have a pacemaker, an EKG can show how well that device is working and can be used to help demonstrate that medication is having an effect on the heart muscle.
Many times, an EKG is ordered as a way to establish a baseline of how your heart is operating, and then using this in the future to compare against other EKG testing to help show a pattern of operational issues, such as electrical issues or other items. While an in-office EKG is very common, there may be times when a Holter monitor is called for to better determine if and when heart abnormalities crop up.
Showing Positive Steps
While many times the EKG is used as a diagnostic tool to determine if there are issues with the heart, it can also be used to showcase positive steps in getting the heart back into a normal rhythm. This might be due to improved health, efforts at increasing exercise, or even the results of using medication to help regulate the heartbeat. So, the EKG is used as a monitoring tool as well as a way to show improvements, and not just to confirmation of problems.
The use of the EKG, both in our offices at Cardiology of Hudson Valley as well as a Holter monitor for longer term measuring and recording in Hillcrest, Nyack, Spring Valley, Rockland County, Chestnut Ridge, Monsey, NY, and the surrounding areas, is very useful for the results that it produces, as well as the fact that it is so easy to do the test without interfering with daily life. Contact our team today to learn more about the EKG testing and schedule your test to better understand how your heart is functioning.