Wednesday, July 16, 2008

ECG ahoy!

Got my ECG taken for the first time today! It's a rare luxury I think to have it done out of curiosity rather than out of fear of a lethal heart condition. I also got to take someone else's ECG, although it's really not that exciting - just a matter of knowing where to put the sticky labels really. The tricky bit is interpreting the results, which is why cardiologists drive faster cars than me.

If you look closely at the text up the top, you'll see that the machine was concerned that I had bradycardia (heart rate too slow), despite my heart rate being bang on 60 beats per minute. This is because we accidentally told the machine that I was 3 years old (which is why the heading on the chart is "pediatric ECG analysis") and 60 bpm is too slow for a 3 year old.

I was actually quite relieved to get a normal ECG out of this. (Note: if you're a cardiologist and see something lethal, please contact me.) Studying medicine means hearing lots of stories about young, fit, healthy people suddenly dropping dead of undiagnosed heart conditions, so it's easy to get a bit paranoid. It seems I'm in the clear for now...

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