Has anyone had an ECG before a marathon

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johnve5w
johnve5w Posts: 5 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am wondering if it is necessary and any benefits of having one done? Also what do they actually do?

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  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    I've never heard of anyone who has.

    If you are worried about the odd death that occurs during a longer distance race, typically it is a specific type of heart condition that is pretty much undetectable. For those people even a test like that wouldn't have be an indicator of a problem.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    A resting ECG might reveal some gross abnormality or possibly a past MI, but provides little useful insight about the presence of underlying heart disease.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    johnve5w wrote: »
    I am wondering if it is necessary and any benefits of having one done? Also what do they actually do?

    If you don't know what an ECG does then what is the basis of this question?
  • SarahTheEntwife
    SarahTheEntwife Posts: 5 Member
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    johnve5w wrote: »
    I am wondering if it is necessary and any benefits of having one done? Also what do they actually do?

    They're basically an ultrasound on your heart, and are a good way to identify many structural and blood flow problems. (I have heart defects and so have to have them yearly.) If you don't have any previous history of heart problems it seems kind of overkill, and a one-time look at your heart while you're at rest isn't necessarily going to identify an exertion-related problem anyway.
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    Ideally everyone who starts a new sports routine or who gets training to a more intense level should have a check-up by a cardiologist. It is not directly related to a race and it might not be limited to an ECG.
    An ECG is not an ultrasound, it is an electro cardio gram. If the dr suspects something is wrong, then additional tests will be done, like a heart ultrasound or a stress test.
    I used to think that it was pretty much useless unless you had symptoms, until a sports club required a full panel test for my son, which revealed a heart structural anomaly. They told as it would be the kind of thing that would never give him any symptoms, but could prove fatal if he ever engaged into activities related to changes in environmental pressure, like scuba diving.
    I have a valve defect myself, detected with an ultrasound, which means I need to be careful about very intense exercise and know when to stop. I had symptoms caused by this, which were initially attributed to stress.
  • SarahTheEntwife
    SarahTheEntwife Posts: 5 Member
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    I've usually heard EKG for electrocardiogram and ECG for echocardiogram.
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    SarahTheEntwife wrote: »
    I've usually heard EKG for electrocardiogram and ECG for echocardiogram.

    ECG is british/international, EKG is American for electrocardiogram
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    aggelikik wrote: »
    SarahTheEntwife wrote: »
    I've usually heard EKG for electrocardiogram and ECG for echocardiogram.

    ECG is british/international, EKG is American for electrocardiogram

    I don't know about the US, but in Canada ECG and EKG are used interchangeably for electrocardiogram. An echocardiogram would be referred by the method of completion. So a TEE, is a transesophageal echocardiogram, and a TTE is a transthoracic echocardiogram. I think that's a little more than OP was thinking about, but I could be wrong.

    OP, I had an ECG done before beginning an intense workout program. I wanted to be certain that I was safe to go ahead. That was many years ago, and in hindsight, it was likely not very useful. The ECG will only capture what is going on in the moment. When doing them, if you have someone with various changes occurring, sometimes what you capture in one minute will change significantly five minutes later, by that time the patient is disconnected and the dysrhythmia can be missed.

    That being said, it is a good idea to speak with your doctor before beginning an intense program, and continue to monitor yourself throughout training. If you are feeling strange, get checked out further. An ECG will not be the best indicator of stress induced cardiac malfunctions.

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