Heart Health: Prevention is always the best medicine when it comes to health, including when it comes to the functioning of the heart. Therefore, regular heart tests are essential and highly recommended, especially for people with a family history of heart disease.
Likewise, those in risk groups such as obese, diabetics, smokers, and hypertensive patients, for example, should also be aware and not neglect this preventive measure.
Want to know more about cardiological exams? Keep reading this post!
What Are The Main Cardiac Exams?
They are helpful in a healthy way and in the prevention and diagnosis of serious diseases, as well as being important in monitoring various treatments. Discover the main ones:
Electrocardiogram
It is a simple and quick exam to perform. In addition, it is one of the most basic in cardiological evaluation. It analyzes the electrical activity of the heart through electrodes that are placed on the patient’s chest region and also on the arms and legs.
For its accomplishment, no preparation is necessary. It is enough for the patient to be relaxed to avoid interference from other muscles. This test will determine heart rate and diagnose a heart attack, as well as additional heart anomalies.
Echocardiogram
It uses sound waves to create an image of the heart muscle. An ultrasound of the heart is done using an instrument that transmits high-frequency waves and is placed next to the patient’s sternum (chest bone).
There are several types of echocardiograms:
- transthoracic;
- transesophageal;
- of stress ;
It is usually used in investigating heart murmur, shortness of breath, symptoms of palpitations, fainting, and other conditions such as heart failure, congenital anomalies, and heart muscle diseases.
Treadmill Test
This is an exercise test where arrhythmias are induced through exercise on a bicycle or treadmill. It is performed in a supervised environment and aims to measure blood pressure and take an ECG reading while the patient is exercising.
It is mainly indicated for investigating arrhythmias caused by exertion and suspected obstructions in the heart’s arteries.
24 Hour Holter
It is a measurement of the electrical tracing of the heart in 24 hours, whose purpose is to look for arrhythmias – both tachycardias (increased beats) and bradycardias (decreased beats) rhythmic (called sinus) or arrhythmic. In this exam, electrodes are placed in the patient’s chest region, which, in turn, are connected to a portable device, which will record the entire exam.
The patient remains with the device for 24 hours, maintaining the day-to-day routine and doing the usual activities during the examination.
How Important Is It To Do Them?
In addition to prevention, doing cardiological exams helps in the diagnosis of serious diseases such as:
- sudden death;
- stroke;
- acute myocardial infarction;
- peripheral vascular disease;
- among others;
Generally, they are indicated for people with a history of cardiovascular diseases in the family and who are part of risk groups. However, they should be done by everyone who cares about keeping their health up to date. These exams also serve to help the medical team in monitoring various treatments.
Ideally, these exams should be performed once a year, as new types of treatments are constantly emerging and advances occur quickly in the case of cardiology.
Medicine is an area of knowledge that is growing at a rapid pace. In addition, it has innovative techniques that appear every day. One of them is the echocardiogram.
Created in the 1980s, the echocardiogram has been gaining ground as one of the main tests used to diagnose heart disease.
What Is An Echocardiogram?
The echocardiogram is an ultrasound examination. That is, it uses high-frequency sound waves to obtain information.
The acquired data is transformed into images by a computer, allowing a deeper look into the patient’s heart — morphological structure, anatomy, and blood flow, for example.
The exam is painless and quick, lasting from 30 to 60 minutes. There are no contraindications, and anyone can be submitted to the process.
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