Medical - False ECG referral for Echocardiogram?

[Stigy]

If the leads are in the wrong order then it gives very strange readings.

This causes nurses or hcas to call for investigations.

If we are talking about the ‘limb leads’ that are attached to the body, they can go pretty much anywhere. If it’s the end attached to the machine that may be slightly different, as I’ve never had experience with this (if indeed they do plug in to the machine or are permanently fixed?). The leads themselves (the sticky bits/dots) can be attached to arms/legs/torso or whatever and still have the same effect.

 

[Marton]

You can’t really get the electrodes in the wrong place. There’s no specific order to them really.

Not true. The limb leads essentially work as ‘view points’ from the 4 corners. The chest leads from the front.

The correct view gives the correct picture.

See more here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einthoven's_triangle

 

[sw1ller]

I’m no expert on where the leads can or can’t go. I’m just going off the horror stories told to me by the drivers involved with it. No nice at all.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

You can’t really get the electrodes in the wrong place. There’s no specific order to them really.

Correct electrode placement is crucial, especially leads V1-V6 around the "angle of Louis" in a 12-lead system

We don't know either whether the OP had a screening ECG (5-lead system) or diagnostic (12-lead) initially

But all this is hearsay now as thankfully for the OP, a normal ECG was obtained

 

[Elecman]

You can’t really get the electrodes in the wrong place. There’s no specific order to them really.

Oh yes you can and it happens more frequently than you imagine especially when the leads are in a birds nest

 

[dwizzle123]

When I recently had an ECG the nurse did not seem confident in the placement of the leads. When the results were printed out, I’m not expert but even I could see the graph was wonky as anything and looked far from normal.

Referred to the doctor who advised that “either the last three people to have a reading are having heart attacks, or there’s an issue with the machine”.

He listened to my heart for a little while and gave the all clear. Medical passed.