What Is the Difference Between an Electrocardiogram and an Echocardiogram?

Heart health is a top concern for most people. To support heart health, eating well, exercising, getting high-quality rest, and effectively managing stress is a great start.

If you have concerns about how your heart is functioning or if you just want a baseline, stress testing can provide vital information.

As a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Dr. Ritin Bomb puts his patients at RK Heart & Vascular Care. 

Assessing how your heart is functioning is the first step to determining if there are any issues or conditions to be addressed and creating a customized treatment plan. Dr. Bomb is invested in helping you support your heart health.

What is stress testing?

Stress testing involves evaluating how your heart performs when you’re active, such as walking on a treadmill or stationary bicycle. 

These tests help Dr. Bomb understand if your heart is performing at its peak or if there’s a concern that should be investigated. 

When your heart is working its hardest, like when you’re moving during a stress test, it’s easier to uncover problems with how your heart may be functioning.

These tests can reveal multiple problems, including:

• Congestive heart failure
• Coronary artery disease
• Heart valve disease
• Congenital heart disease
• Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (abnormal heart muscle thickness)
• Heart arrhythmia (irregular rhythms related to several conditions)
• Angina, chest pain due to insufficient blood flow to the heart

Two tests that Dr. Bomb frequently recommends are an electrocardiogram and an echocardiogram. 

Aside from the shared “cardio” component in each word that gives us an indication the tests are heart-related, what is the purpose of each, and how are they differentiated?

Find out in the section below.

Electrocardiogram versus echocardiogram

When you come to our office for an electrocardiogram (EKG), we apply electrodes to your chest, and you walk on a treadmill. The test records your heart’s electrical activity, and at the same time, you wear a blood pressure cuff on your arm, allowing your blood pressure to be monitored simultaneously. 

As Dr. Bomb interprets your EKG results, he can see how fast your heart was beating during the test, the rhythm of your heartbeats, and the timing of the naturally occurring electrical impulses while they travel through your heart.

This test can determine:

• If you’ve ever had a heart attack in the past
• The cause of chest pain, such as a blockage
• Heart arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats)

An echocardiogram, or “echo,” is a type of imaging test that uses sound waves to create images of the heart. This test also gives Dr. Bomb important details about your heart’s structure and how it’s working and can detect:

• Issues with your pericardium, the heart’s outer lining 
• Blood clots in the chambers of the heart
• Holes between the chambers of the heart
• Sounds that are the results of heart valve damage
• Problems affecting the large blood vessels that enter and exit the heart

During something called echo stress testing, your heart is first assessed while you’re at rest. Then, as you work up to a more vigorous pace on the treadmill, your heart’s activity is monitored when you start off in the “warmup” stage all the way up to when you’re working out at your hardest.

With the results of these tests, Dr. Bomb can then create a treatment plan that’s tailored to your specific conditions and needs.

At RK Heart & Vascular, you have access to the highest quality cardiology care, including advanced diagnostic testing. To schedule an appointment at our Memphis, Tennessee, or Senatobia, Mississippi, office, please call us or book online.