Can a normal ECG rule out heart disease?

Many people during their middle ages undrego ECG for a complaint of chest pain. Some of them usually get it done on their own and then ask opinion from doctors without telling them as to who was the patient especially if the doctor happens to be one of their family member.

If the doctor declares ECG to be normal then these poeople are happy.

But wait a minute, can a normal ECG rules out heart disease. The answer is a big NO. These people later on may succumb to heart attack.

What should be done if a person is experiencing chest pain?

The thing to remember is that heart pain (called angina) usually comes during exertion and settles down in resting state. In such patients during resting state the ECG reports turn out mostly to be normal. In order to check for presence of heart disease a special test is done which is called exercise tolerance test or ETT. In this test patient is asked to run on treadmill and then ECG is done during exertion now the ECG will change indicating cardiac disease. You can guess after exercise when patient rests these changes will disappear. Next time to check for presence of heart disease go for ETT.