An ECG or Electrocardiogram is one of the tests used to evaluate the heart's electrical activity.
It can diagnose various heart conditions such as arrhythmias, heart attacks, and heart muscle damage.
It can also help determine the cause of chest pain and evaluate heart-related problems like severe tiredness, shortness of breath, dizziness, or fainting.
It also helps to identify irregular heartbeats. With the help of ECG results, the appropriate treatment for a patient, such as medication or a procedure is determined.
ECG helps to determine the overall health of the heart before surgery; or after treatment for conditions such as a heart attack (myocardial infarction, or MI), endocarditis, cardiac catheterization, etc.
It is useful to monitor the heart rhythm of patients with pacemakers or other implanted cardiac devices.
ECGs that are taken at different times are compared to determine if there have been any changes in the heart’s function.