Electrocardiography is a common procedure that allows you to determine the work of the heart muscle. ECG for children can be carried out in the first year of life. There are no contraindications for the procedure as such. Recently, even at discharge from the maternity hospital, many babies have an ECG to make sure that the baby is completely healthy.
What is an ECG?
The electrocardiogram has long established itself as the most informative, simple method for studying the work of the heart muscle. As a result of the contraction of the heart, electrical potentials are recorded by the device. This allows you to make special sensors that are easily attached to the body. Pulses are amplified 600-700 times and enter a device called a cardiograph. He decrypts these impulses and issues them in the form of a graph on a special paper tape. The procedure is completely painless, takes little time, is safe. Therefore, children can do an ECG at a very young age. This allows you to diagnose various dangerous diseases on time at the earliest possible time.
What can I learn from the cardiogram?
What does an ECG show in children? First of all, it gives an estimate of the heart rate. It also allows you to identify various metabolic disorders, it may be a deficiency of magnesium, potassium, any other electrolytes. In this case, serious diseases such as:
- Congenital or acquired heart disease. Myocarditis.
- An abnormal increase (hypertrophy) of one or another part of the heart.
- Myocardial infarction.
- Angina pectoris.
- Blockade of the heart. Violation of intracardiac conduction, heart rate.
- Metabolic disorders caused by any pathological conditions, various diseases.
- Pulmonary embolism.
Benefits
There are times when babies are prescribed a chest x-ray. This method is also effective in the examination, but it is most often used to confirm any disease. To find out more about heart function, it is recommended that children conduct an ECG. The advantages of this procedure are obvious. What are they:
- The painlessness of the procedure itself. Parents know that children are terrified of any pain, even the appearance of electrodes can cause tantrum. However, they do not cause the slightest discomfort.
- The method is very simple, does not cause much stress either in the patient or the doctor.
- The procedure is inexpensive. You can go through it both for free and in a paid clinic.
- Rapidity. It does not take more than 10 minutes with all the preparations. The child does not even have time to get scared. Withstand the process of any kid.
- Devices for conducting ECG are improved every year, acquiring new functions. An interpretation with a detailed description (where a complete analysis of the heart rhythm, muscle turns around the longitudinal, transverse axis is indicated) is performed in the shortest possible time. You can immediately get a conclusion on hand.
- No need to worry about how to find a place where the ECG is done. You can do the procedure in any clinic.
ECG features in children
Parents should know that the growing body of the baby has its own characteristics, at one age or another, indicators can be different. When conducting an ECG for children, doctors certainly take this into account. So what features are characteristic of children's testimony?
- In infants, it often happens that the right ventricle predominates. Parents should not be afraid of this, this is the norm for infancy, with age its size will decrease.
- The younger the child, the shorter the intervals shown by the electrocardiogram.
- In size, the atrium in children is slightly larger, when compared with the proportions in adults, you should not be scared in deciphering a high R wave.
- A large number always appears in the chest lead, so a negative T wave will appear.
- In the atrial limit, migration of rhythm sources.
- Alternations of teeth in the ventricular complex is the norm.
- Incomplete blockade may appear on the right leg of the bundle of His.
- Norm - sinus, respiratory arrhythmia.
- There is the possibility of a deep Q wave in the third standard lead (on the chest).
As soon as the ECG procedure is carried out, you can fully learn about the work of the heart of the child.
ECG
The procedure is carried out using a modern electrocardiograph device. Special electrodes are attached to the childβs body, which perceive the electric potentials formed in the heart, which, in turn, are recorded on paper. So how do ECG children? In practice, 12 leads are used: 6 of them are fixed to the chest using suction cup electrodes, and the other 6 standard electrodes are superimposed on the limbs. To conduct an ECG in a child, electrodes of reduced sizes are used, they have a special shape so as not to inflict a skin injury on the baby. Some clinics use disposable suction cups, they are very soft and do not leave any marks. You can purchase a set of disposable sensors for newborns.
Modern devices make it possible to store readings in the internal memory of the device, record them on external media, and carry out primary processing. A complete decoding of the ECG, its interpretation, and the delivery of the results is carried out by the doctor. Each child has individual indications, variants may have certain deviations, but they should not go beyond physiological norms.
How to make an ECG for a child without tears?
The procedure does not cause the baby any pain, but the children are afraid of everything new, unusual, and therefore often even the appearance of suction cups can unbalance them. If the procedure is before the baby, it is better to carry it out after feeding, during sleep, when the baby is relaxed, inactive. It is quite possible to pass an ECG to a child without tears. Children who already perceive what is happening need a little preparation. Play doctor at home with them, show the procedure on the dolls, tell him what this is for him to go through. The boys respond very well to the game of robots. Tell your son that he will become a robot that will attach controlled wiring. During the procedure, he will have to lie quietly, pretend to be sleeping, so that the enemy from the android army does not notice him. You will see how the little one will enjoy going to the clinic, he will even want to come back to play.
When is an ECG necessary?
Statistics show that every second resident of large cities turns to cardiologists. Cardiovascular diseases, sadly, are in the first place among health problems. That is why all civilized countries put the procedure for ECG in babies in their first year of life as mandatory. In addition, it is necessary:
- When undergoing a medical examination upon admission to the garden, school.
- When undergoing medical examination.
- Before classes in any sports section.
- Before the necessary operations.
- An ECG should be regularly performed in chronic ENT diseases.
- After pneumonia, bronchitis, tonsillitis to avoid complications.
- With any detection of heart murmur.
If the baby is tired quickly when sucking, the skin around the lips becomes cyanotic, in this case, it is simply necessary to make an ECG for the baby. Where to do - any pediatrician will tell you. All clinics have modern equipment that allows this painless procedure.
An ECG is also necessary if the child suddenly faints, quickly gets tired, suffers from edema, dizziness, pain in the heart and joints. Be sure to call the pediatric cardiologist.
Indicators
So, we consider the results of the ECG of the child. Decoding, the norm of indicators is slightly different from the ECG of an adult patient. However, the doctor always takes into account certain age-specific features when deciphering indicators in children. In particular, this is the heart rate - small children under the age of 3 years can have such an indicator from 100 to 110 beats per minute, and this is considered the norm. Over time, the heart rate decreases, and by the puberty period, it should give an indicator that is more equivalent to an adult (from 60 to 90 beats per minute).
Deciphering the ECG readings in children, the doctor should note that the electrical impulses passing in the heart (in the elevation interval P, QRS, T) have readings from 120 to 200 ms, this is equivalent to five squares. The QRS complex makes it possible to find out if the ventricles are excited. To do this, the interval between the Q and S teeth is measured, these indicators should not exceed the border from 60 to 100 ms. Particular attention is paid to the excitation of the right ventricle (V1-V2). Children's cardiogram often shows that this indicator is higher than in the left. With age, these indicators return to normal.
The ECG graph in infants often shows nicks, splitting, and thickening at R-elevations. Such an indicator in an adult would indicate bradycardia or tachycardia. For children, this is a common condition.
We talked about performance standards. However, do not try to decipher the results of the ECG on your own, a highly qualified doctor should deal with this issue.
Additional diagnostics
If the child is more than three years old, to obtain accurate results, an ECG with a load is suggested . That is, first they take the testimony in a calm state, and then after some activity, excitement (they give the baby to twist the exercise bike, jump).
If the child showed any deviations from normal indications, then the patient is sent for additional examinations. It is necessary to undergo an ultrasound of the heart. The non-invasive procedure is completely painless, no traumatic agents are used.
Then using computed tomography to determine and identify any pathology in the heart.
Conclusion - parents should strictly monitor the health of their children, and an ECG procedure just needs to be done regularly, normally once a year.