How to Read an EKG

How to Read an EKG EKG or electrocardiogram is a machine that is used to measure a heartbeat. A paper called an EKG strip is produced by this machine that displays the heart’s electrical activity. The result displayed on the paper is analyzed by the doctor to establish how healthy your heart is.

You don’t need to be a doctor or a person from medical line to read simple ekg readings. This article will help you understand how you can read an EKG strip or estimate heart beat rates.

Instructions

First have a look along the horizontal axis of the EKG strip. Each EKG paper is considered a grid where time is measured along the horizontal axis. While each small sized square is 1mm long, representing .04 seconds, each of the larger squares is 5mm long, representing .2 seconds.
The vertical axis on the EKG strip is used to measure voltage. You must remember that on the strip, 10 millimeters is considered to be equal to 1mV (milliVolt) in voltage.
To analyze the ekg readings you must carefully observe the spikes of the lines displayed on the strip. These are basically the QRS complexes, where Q is the dip immediately prior the sharp spike, R is the top of the spike, and S is the dip at the bottom right.
Now if you want to calculate the heart rate of a person with a regular rhythm, take the number 300 and divide it by the number of large squares that are between the QRS complexes or spikes. For instance, if there are 4large squares between the QRS complexes, the heart rate will be 300/4 or 75.
There is another method or formula used to determine the heart rate of an irregular rhythm. For measuring the heart rate in this case, you need to take into account the number of R waves that are present in a 6-second portion of the strip. R waves are the top point of each of the QRS complex. Multiply the number of R waves by 10. For instance, if there are 7 R waves in the six-second piece of ekg strip, then the heart rate will be 7×10 or 70.