EKG vs Echocardiogram

I recently took my annual "physical" to assure my employer that I was fit to do the job. The internist I saw would not sign the paper that stated I could walk a mile in 15 min. unless I had an Echocardiogram.

I saw a Cardio specialist and had the ECG. He said it showed no problem at all with either blood pressure or my heart. The next thing I know, his assistant is hooking me up to an EKG. I told her that I had already had an ECG and the doctor was finished with his exam. She said that he always liked to have a back-up and had his patients also take an EKG just to be sure there were no problems.

This seems very fishy to me, as the ECG was explained to me by the internist as being a more modern test, an improved version of the EKG, which gives a clearer picture of the patient's cardiovascular system and is able to find problems which might not be found with the EKG.

The cardio specialist's requirement of the EKG after he said I had no problems at all, seems rather shady to me and now I have been billed for the procedure. Medicare is not covering it.

What is your opinion? Would you require an EKG as a back-up of the ECG? It seems that if there is a back-up of anything it would be the use of an ECG as the back-up to the EKG.

Thank you very much for your help.
MKD

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

If I have recent EKG and there are no interval change in symptoms, I would not repeat the EKG.  Unless there is something on your history and physical or EKG, you might not need an EKG either.  Unfortunately I cannot really assess that here.

Good luck.

[beachjay]

Surely an EKG is the same test as an ECG ?  It just depends on the language being used.