When diagnosing heart disease, doctors confront the patient with information that must be processed and that involves changes in lifestyles. Beyond the medications that exist for an arrhythmia, for example, both diet and physical exercise are tools for controlling heart disease.
A cardiac pathology is one that is located in the heart, unlike cardiovascular diseases that also include the arteries and veins. Examples, in addition to arrhythmias, are dilation of the heart muscle, heart attacks and failure. As for the internal valves, we can mention stenoses and prolapses.
The same complementary methods are used for most of these disorders. Diagnosing a heart disease, in general, consists of following some protocol steps that involve carrying out studies from less to greater complexity. Here we tell you.
What tests can heart disease be diagnosed with?
As we have already mentioned, there are complementary methods to diagnose heart diseases that are common to various pathologies. With an electrocardiogram, for example, it is possible to detect an arrhythmia and a heart attack, without the pathologies being the same.
Electrocardiogram
An electrocardiogram (ECG) is an electrical recording of the activity of the heart muscle. Through electrodes located on the outside of the body, the variations of electricity that are typical of the heartbeat are perceived. This originates from the internal system that the heart tissue has to control the act of beating.
The test does not require anesthesia or extensive preparations. What’s more, it is performed in outpatient clinics and the patient leaves after no more than half an hour of having been there. Sometimes they are routinely requested to track changes that could be hidden, and other times they are requests for subsequent controls on already established pathologies, such as a heart attack or high blood pressure.
The record is captured, through the electrocardiogram apparatus, on a paper with a line that denotes the heartbeat. The interpretation of the study depends on the training of the doctor. There are already established reading protocols that indicate the meaning of each line that was drawn.
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