Today, everything is shortcuts. Patients want quick tests, diagnoses, and some pills to fix these issues. Is your life seriously as simple as an ECG strip, of you really think a 400/- or for that matter even a 30,000/- Angiography can estimate about your life? Many ask this question as to why, or rather, how come someone has a heart attack when all the tests including ECG were normal yesterday?
Table of Contents
Physiology vs Pathology:-
1. ECH or Electro Cardiogram is a physiological snapshot of the electrical fields across the heart AT_THIS_POINT_OF_TIME.
2. Anatomy means the structure of the body, the organs, their size, shape, composition, etc.
3. When one has fatty liver, for example, the structure of the liver has changed. The structural changes in the organs are confirmed by Pathological tests like ultrasound, or in some cases blood tests. Such structural changes are possible in all organs.
5. On the other hand, the way an organ functions, is called Physiology.
For example, Virat Kohli is playing well, middling the balls means his Physiology is good now. But a great ball can come and knock off his stamps. So, the score, or pathology may be good, even though the physiology is good.
In the 2011 world cup semifinals, Tendulkar played a match-winning of over 80 runs. But Pakistan had dropped his six catches. So, his Physiology was bad, but pathology was good.
💡 So, a bad score or pathology doesn’t mean a bad Physiology, and vice versa.
ECG(Electro Cardiogram) is Electrophysiology
1. ECG measures the electrical flow through the axis of the heart. So, if the heart is functioning well, we get a certain pattern, if not we get another pattern.
2. See the image of a lady with one closed eye. Is she blind by one eye? Is she blinking? You can’t say from one snapshot.
Same way, from one ECG, you can’t say if things are normal or abnormal.
3. Electrophysiology was a better tool than Stethoscope, with which we can see PQRTSTu peaks, which marks different operations of one heart circle.
4. Example:-
In Anemia and Myocarditis, we get a low voltage ECG. So, a low voltage ECG is not proof of a heart problem.
HEART SUFFERS DUE TO MANY CONDITIONS:-
Overactivity like running on the treadmill(see the sequence of ECG changes during and after exercise), Anger, sudden bad news, So, an ECG can not tell if there can be such a shock in immediate future.
Just after ECG, one can get a call of losing 50L in the share market and collapse there.
The Actual Protocol for Assessing the Risk of Heart Attack
A framework of history, physiology, pathology, psychology, and 💡several series of data to measure how a body is changing from time to time is needed to model the actual functionality of the heart and to uncover the hidden risks.
For example in chest pain, diastolic BP is measured continuously, along with high-resolution Trop-I blood tests every 30-60 minutes. Needless to say, rarely such standard protocols are followed because we do not have enough cardiac care facilities in India.
Conclusion
Heart assessment needs several ECG/data over a few days to monitor the function of the heart, body, brain, and the load on the heart, and the vascular system. There is no shortcut to finding load on the heart. And therefore even a normal Angiography may follow by a sudden heart attack.
For a thorough assessment of the cardiovascular system, take the Lyfas test today. You will know what traditional healthcare misses.
To feel good about a normal ECG is like sitting on the top of Vesuvius mountain and being happy that your A$$ is not burning(yet). Life is not a strip, a syringe, or a pill. Listen to your heart. It starts telling you about its suffering from the day you have made it to work harder, and harder. It also had warned you, when it realized that it was no more able to take the excess load. You did not listen. It had also warned you, a few days before it was no more possible for your heart to take it anymore. And yet, you did not listen to it.
Trust your mind, body, and heart. They are giving you the diagnosis.
👨🏻🔬🔬
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