EKG Lab

Yet again, we had some more fun tests to perform in the lab.  This time it was an EKG lab.  In this lab we got to play around a lot with different ways of taking blood pressure.  Everything from blood pressure cuffs to more accurate hand grips that hooked up to a recording program on a computer.  I’m really not a fan of blood pressure cuffs…they just freak me out…claustrophobia…ew, ew.  So, I decided to watch rather than volunteer my scrawny arm! 

An EKG is first and foremost, a graphical recording of the events occurring within the heart.  It records the natural pace and movement of the heart and can give good insight into the health of the heart and thus the rest of the body.  There are five parts to a single heartbeat, the P wave or atrial contraction, the QRS or ventricular contraction and finally the T wave which is the ventricular repolarization.  Viewing the EKG tracing of the heart can prove disorders or abnormalities in the heart.  For our lab we recorded for five seconds the electrical activity of the heart.  We then switched the red and green leads to simulate the change in electrical activity.  We started by connecting a green(negative) and black(ground) cords to the right arm and red(positive) cord to the left forearm.  The cords were connected to the recording program on the computer, we then collected the data from the model.  We then exchanged the clips with the other arm and recorded again.  Here is our data.

Interval                       Time

P-R                         .089s  .104s

QRS                        .079s  .069s

Q-T                         .257s  .140

R-R                         .666s  .562

Heart Rate (BPM)            39.96   33.72

After researching this data we could explore further on what a healthy/average heart rate would be for different ages, genders etc.  This may be something I will be looking into further for another post.  

This lab taught quite a bit on simply how to record heart rate and how to analyze it afterwards.  I think it's a skill that's a bit more likely to be used in daily life.  I think our previous heart dissection lab really helped close the gap with this one.  The dissection lab discussed what everything was, and this EKG lab showed what those parts did and how they relate to the proper functions of the rest of the body.  For me it really made the connection.  I think this is also something that could be explored further.  I may be looking back at this post for an outside research blog.  We'll see!