electrocardiography, Electrical conduction in the heart in healthy individuals is controlled by pacemaker cells in the sinoatrial node. Electrical impulses are conducted from the sinoatrial node to the atrioventricular node and bundle of His, through the bundle branches, and into the ventricles.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.method of graphic tracing (electrocardiogram; ECG or EKG) of the electric current generated by the heart muscle during a heartbeat. The tracing is recorded with an electrocardiograph (actually a relatively simple string galvanometer), and it provides information on the condition and performance of the heart. The Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven developed the first electrocardiogram in 1903, and for many years the tracing was called an EKG after the German Elektrokardiogramm. During the late 1960s, computerized electrocardiography came into use in many of the larger hospitals.

The figure on the left represents an electrocardiogram showing the deflections that reflect the alternate contractions of the atria and the ventricles of the heart during one heartbeat. The figure on the right depicts the impulse-conducting system of the heart.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Electrocardiograms are made by applying electrodes to various parts of the body. Electrodes that record the electrical activity of the heart are placed at 10 different locations: one on each of the four limbs and six at different locations on the anterior surface of the chest. After the electrodes are in place, held with a salt paste, a millivolt from a source outside the body is introduced so that the instrument can be calibrated. Standardizing electrocardiograms makes it possible to compare them as taken from person to person and from time to time from the same person.

