Bioinstrumentation EKG

            Electrocardiograms (EKG or ECG) are utilized by doctors and surgeons to measure the electrical activity of the heart. Electrocardiography is the process of recording the electrical activity of the heart using electrodes placed on the skin (Goldberger, Goldberger & Shvilkin, 2017). Our hearts are polarized when at rest due to excess of sodium ions outside the membrane, which correlates to a resting potential of about 90 mV. Muscle stimulation tends to enhance the permeability of the membranes to the sodium ions. The entry of the sodium ions to the membrane affects the electrical field around the muscular cells thereby causing an action potential and muscle contraction (D’Souza et al., 2014). The ions such as potassium, calcium, and chlorine are also involved in the process and the electrodes placed on the skin surface record a sum of the action potentials. The signal generated is graphed in the form of an electrocardiogram (EKG) to show cardiac electric potential. There can be various deflections in the EKG waveforms corresponding to the contraction of various areas of the heart (Muhrbeck, Persson & Hofman-Bang, 2018). Each of the cycles made is represented by a P wave, a GRS complex, and a T wave. P wave is the analogy for the depolarization of the atria, and the QRS complex represents the depolarization of the ventricles. T wave correspond the re-polarization of the ventricles as shown in the figure below. 

            The purpose of the lab is to find out the changes in heart rate between resting and after physical activity through the measurement of the QRS interval, P-R interval, and Q-T interval (electrical activities) and the average resting maximum amplitude and heart rate. The information generated from the lab report will be essential to future practice using electrocardiography.    

References

D’Souza, A., Bucchi, A., Johnsen, A. B., Logantha, S. J. R., Monfredi, O., Yanni, J., ... & Dobryznski, H. (2014). Exercise training reduces resting heart rate via downregulation of the funny channel HCN4: Nature communications, 5, 3775

Goldberger, A. L., Goldberger, Z. D., & Shvilkin, A. (2017). Clinical Electrocardiography: A Simplified Approach E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences

Muhrbeck, J., Persson, J., & Hofman-Bang, C. (2018). Catheterization laboratory activations and time intervals for patients with pre-hospital ECGs: Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal, 1-6.

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