Electrocardiography

Weill Cornell's state-of-the-art Coleman Center for Electrocardiography is located in our newly renovated and easy to find facilities. We perform and provide professional interpretation of a range of inpatient and outpatient electrocardiographic procedures, including routine 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs), ambulatory and event monitor recordings, exercise ECGs, signal-averaged ECGs, and transtelephonic pacemaker monitoring.

Our Electrocardiography laboratory is one of the busiest in the nation performing over 110,000 ECG interpretations a year, including over 100,000 12-lead ECGs, over 1,000 exercise stress tests, more than 1,000 ambulatory monitors and over 4,000 transtelephonic pacemaker evaluations.

Our team is led by academic cardiologists with over 30 years of clinical and research experience in electrocardiography and includes Cardiology fellows-in-training and highly-experienced technicians.  We provide a uniquely high-level of clinical service to New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell and the surrounding community as well as a rich training environment for our Cardiology fellows.

What is this for?

Considered the first diagnostic tools for evaluation of anatomic changes and arrhythmias, these noninvasive tests use an electrocardiogram (ECG) to assess the electrical activity produced by the heart. In addition to the resting 12-lead ECG, the electrical activity of the heart can be examined over 24 hours, by using portable ambulatory recorders. Event recorders can be used over even longer time periods to detect infrequent rhythm irregularities. The ECG can also be examined during exercise testing..

Types of electrocardiographic procedures:

An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a diagnostic test that is used to detect abnormalities in the heart's rhythm, as well as to provide important information about damage to the electrical system of the heart, heart attacks, structural abnormalities in the heart's walls, and more. Weill Cornell provides the full range of advanced electrocardiography services, including:

• Resting ECG. This test monitors the heart's activity at rest.  It provides information about the heart rhythm, acute and prior heart attacks, and abnormalities of the structure and electrical system of the heart. 

• Stress Test (Exercise ECG). This test monitors the heart's activity under conditions of physical exercise. It is used for the evaluation of exercise capacity, for the detection of coronary disease and the assessment of its severity, for prediction of cardiovascular risk, and for monitoring the response to treatment.

• Signal-averaged ECG. This procedure is performed in the same manner as a resting ECG, except that the heart's electrical activity is recorded over a longer period of time, usually 15 to 20 minutes. A computer processes the information so that slight abnormalities that would not be seen in a standard ECG might be detected. Signal-averaged ECG assesses a patient's risk of developing an arrhythmia. 

• Holter (Ambulatory) Monitoring. The Holter monitor is a portable electrocardiograph machine that allows readings to be made over a 24-hour period, while the individual is performing the usual activities of daily living at home or at work.  This test is useful for detection of intermittent rhythm abnormalities of the heart, to quantify certain abnormalities and to relate patient symptoms to possible rhythm abnormalities.
• Event/loop Recording. Portable event/loop recorders can monitor heart activity for weeks to months, while the device is worn by the individual at home. A permanent record is kept only when the patient activates the recorder during periods when symptoms are felt.  This test supplements the 24-hour Holter monitor and is particularly useful for detection of less frequent symptoms.