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12-lead ECGs are really only done with 10 physical leads. One lead is ground, six leads are each single-channel measures (V1 -V6) that wrap around the heart and

by vacri 10y ago

12-lead ECGs are really only done with 10 physical leads. One lead is ground, six leads are each single-channel measures (V1 -V6) that wrap around the heart and the remaining three leads are used to create six channels - three single-channel measures, and the last three channels are calculated as diffs between them. V1-V6 have specific spots on the chest to live, but the remaining four leads (including ground) get one limb each, and generally work wherever you want on that limb. (I used to be an EEG tech, and for us, the ECG was the primary thing we wanted to get rid of...)

forgotpwagain 10y ago
I'm actually really curious -- why would you want to get rid of the ECG as an EEG tech? Do the signals interfere? (I don't know too much about EEG -- happy to learn more!)
- vacri 10y ago
  The short form is that EEG is brain and ECG is heart, and you only want to see brain waves, not heart waves - it's pure interference, that changes the shape of the wave. It's simply 'not the thing we're looking for'. Most clinical EEGs are related to epilepsy or similar, which usually has a particular pattern with spikes in it, but sometimes that pattern is subtle in the EEG. The spiky nature of ECG 'bleeding through' can make it a bit harder to determine the true EEG spikes from the artifact ECG patterns. Usually you will record a single-lead ECG along with the EEG, so you can see where the ECG spikes occurred and account for them in diagnosing the EEG. This link has some clear spike-and-wave epileptic waveforms in it, but it's not always so clear-cut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike-and-wave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike-and-wave Finally, there's not a lot of overlap between neurological and cardiac patients - there's rarely any need for an EEG tech to do a full ECG (we never did, and we did approx 3200 patients/year), and full ECGs are pretty commonly done in most other places in a hospital anyway.

by vacri 10y ago

forgotpwagain 10y ago

I'm actually really curious -- why would you want to get rid of the ECG as an EEG tech? Do the signals interfere? (I don't know too much about EEG -- happy to learn more!)

vacri 10y ago
The short form is that EEG is brain and ECG is heart, and you only want to see brain waves, not heart waves - it's pure interference, that changes the shape of the wave. It's simply 'not the thing we're looking for'. Most clinical EEGs are related to epilepsy or similar, which usually has a particular pattern with spikes in it, but sometimes that pattern is subtle in the EEG. The spiky nature of ECG 'bleeding through' can make it a bit harder to determine the true EEG spikes from the artifact ECG patterns. Usually you will record a single-lead ECG along with the EEG, so you can see where the ECG spikes occurred and account for them in diagnosing the EEG. This link has some clear spike-and-wave epileptic waveforms in it, but it's not always so clear-cut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike-and-wave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike-and-wave Finally, there's not a lot of overlap between neurological and cardiac patients - there's rarely any need for an EEG tech to do a full ECG (we never did, and we did approx 3200 patients/year), and full ECGs are pretty commonly done in most other places in a hospital anyway.