ECG without bra?

Agree with others. Bra should be off for an EKG or auscultation of the heart. Auscultation through a shirt or blouse is also poor medicine. And don't think holding your smart phone will give you a very readable EKG - marginal trace at best.

I've only really ever had one and I had to take my bra off. I remember my nipples were budding and they kept asking me if I was cold, I kept saying no. In the end i thinkit made the tech feel more awkward cause she eventually put a sheet over my breasts haha,

Http://thebolus.org/doing-ecgs-the-right-way-a-reflection/

Due to my accident I have had to have a lot of these recently, and it has always been topless. It could be an urban myth, but I have heard some bra can interfere with the signals.

I did 5 or 6 times and I was always bare-breasted.

Due to my accident I have had to have a lot of these recently, and it has always been topless. It could be an urban myth, but I have heard some bra can interfere with the signals.

Which accident did you have?

However I think it is mostly a urban myth...they only want to be more comfortable applying the electrodes and more pleased about the view

I was hit by a lorry. Multiple contusions, broken hip and shoulder. I spent a few days in ICU, then onto the ward and now I am in lovely rehab

However I think it is mostly a urban myth...they only want to be more comfortable applying the electrodes and more pleased about the view

We've talked this to death. Medical professionals REALLY don't give a shit about your healthy body parts. The simple fact is that the bra gets in the way of proper lead placement, no more, no less.

We've talked this to death. Medical professionals REALLY don't give a shit about your healthy body parts. The simple fact is that the bra gets in the way of proper lead placement, no more, no less.

Perhaps we should learn how to raise the dead??? We would want to do a proper EKG on them to make sure they are alive again... LOLOLOLOL

Perhaps we should learn how to raise the dead??? We would want to do a proper EKG on them to make sure they are alive again... LOLOLOLOL

Did you hear the 'help me' voice? 😉

Bras especially under-wired bras can interfere with electrical conductive and thus interfere with the recording of an ECG and so produce a lot of interference. Incorrect placement of the chest or precordial leads leads can affect the recording and interpretation of the ECG ( even with the filter on). Resulting in undue cost, time etc

We were always taught to ask the woman to remove her bra for an ECG. One female student nurse during my A&E rotation did not ask the woman to remove her underwire bra and spent about 1/2 hr being unable to record the ECG, causing the patient to get more and more anxious ( not what you want for any cardiac issue). Finally she ask me to help, I suggested she asked her patient to remove the bra and the ECG recorded first time ( incidentally the ECG showed no cardiac problems).

I have always asked the patient to remove their bra as taught, if they are uncomfortable with me being male , I get a female to record the ECG. To me its more important to get an accurate ECG and detect and treat any problems.

How big and saggy are your boobs and what kind of bra are you wearing that still has actual wire in it that you can't get proper lead placement with a bra on??? Absurd!

How big and saggy are your boobs and what kind of bra are you wearing that still has actual wire in it that you can't get proper lead placement with a bra on??? Absurd!

Are you trained in performing a 12 lead EKG by something other than a 'we accept everyone' trade school?

I have done quite a few EKGs in my tenure as a paramedic. The bra comes off! It interferes with lead placement, can give false readings due to the underwire (and yes, most underwire bras still have METAL underwires). However, it is very easy to keep exposure of the breasts to a minimum while placing and removing the leads. I know that the fetish side of us thinks this is a moot point, but most women aren't as open-minded about it as we are, and prefer to keep as covered as possible.

Just my two cents' worth.

If I was in an emergency situation or just needed an EKG, I wouldn't care if my mother-in-law saw me without my bra.

What's the big deal?

In Europe, people on the beach go around topless. It's just a gland.

When i was in emergency recently for servere endometriosis pain, they put me under light anthesia to see if that would work as morphine wasn't working, so had to have a ecg and breathing monitored as it slows heart and breathing down and have to make sure I didn't stop breathing or heart stopping or irregular, they used ecg with bra on and just lifted my bra up. Unfortunately that didn't help with the pain but ketamine did, thankfully. Xxx

Leads to monitor heart rate are very different from the 12 lead diagnostic EKG. The rate monitoring requires 3 or 4 leads, basically shoulders and lower chest, not the precordial leads that transverse the chest.

Yes Cherrypie , motoring ECG leads either the 3 or 5 leads configuration can be use quite easily with a bra on . As Jds4med correctly stated the the are placed on the shoulders or the upper chest and lower chest and don't have to be placed in the precordial region (V4 V5 and V6) so it wont be affected by the presence of a bra.

In the UK the normal colours are Red, Yellow, Green, White and Black for the 5 lead configuration and Red, Yellow and Black for the 3 lead configuration. I was taught this saying Ride Your Bike for the placement of the 3 leads Red Rt shoulder or RT upper chest, Yellow Lt shoulder or Lt upper chest and Black for the Lt lower chest.

With regards to the 5 lead configuration, the Green lead is placed at the RT Lower chest, the White lead is refereed to as a floating lead and can be placed anywhere on the chest, traditionally we place it on the sternum or in the case of women just above so it is not affected by their breast tissue.

5 led ecg to monitor me and they put some under my bra, but anyways interesting rn, I am a midwife as well rn.

I have had probably 4(?) ECGs/EKGs in my whole life. Mostly in my teens and about 75% of them were without a bra. I forget the reason I had to have the "check up" EKG where my bra wasn't removed but it was still arousing. I had a lead to my pulmonic, a lead to my aortic, a lead to my Erb's point and I believe a lead placed just at the corner of where my left breast meets my chest, so in general the tricuspid area. It was really short and not extremely arousing, just enough to get me through. The others were all with me completely nude except for my underwear and just my nipples covered - I remember they were all done because I was brought to the ER with a racing heartbeat and they thought I had an issue with my medication so they took them. Each time, I can remember laying completely back on the hospital bed and same placement of the leads above ^^^ except for like 3-4 more underneath my left breast. I'm one of those people that is really in tune with myself and my body so I almost always am able to feel my heart beating if I sit still but I had to keep moving my arms because the latex stickies they had on my arms (also) was making me break out because I'm allergic. I could still feel my heart beating...yeesh...I wasn't afraid it was more that my parents took me. I was breathing really hard and my heart was just racing. Not even pounding just like really fast fluttering...Although I'm happy that there's nothing wrong with my heart it was a little exciting to see the nurse read the results and then run the test again. She never showed me what she found but left the old one laying on the desk next to me while she went to get water or something and I was able to glance over and saw that a few times, it appeared that I had had an extra beat maybe. Ha, cool and arousing none the less.

Cherrypie Ketamine is a very interesting drug. It can have a number of uses depending on the dose. It is mainly used for starting and maintaining anesthesia.Other uses include sedation in intensive care, as a pain killer, as treatment of bronchospasm, as a treatment for complex regional pain syndrome and as an antidepressant. It induces a trance like state while providing pain relief, sedation, and memory loss.

Used in combination with morphine it is very effective, allowing for lower does of morphine to be used with good effective pain relief. Common side effects include a number of psychological reactions as the medication wears. This may include agitation, confusion and psychosis among others ( I have seen very bad hallucinations associated from its use) . Elevated blood pressure (hypertension) and muscle tremors are relatively common, while low blood pressure (hypotension) and a decrease in breathing (respiratory depression) is less so.

I can't believe we're still discussing this!

If you want an accurate EKG, the bra needs to be off.

I don't believe that ketamine is commonly used in the US anymore because of the mental and psychological effects as well as its propensity for abuse. I believe it's been relegated to the vetinary medicine market - 'horse tranquilizer.'

The "potential for abuse" argument seems to have a lot more weight in the US than in the UK - we use ketamine, nitrous oxide and diamorphine (heroin) reasonably routinely. Generally diamorphine is used for terminally ill patients, so the potential for addiction doesn't really matter so much as the fact that it's way more effective than morphine for certain kinds of pain.

We can also get uncompounded pseudephidrine based decongestants, which I don't think are available in the US because it's a methamphetamine precursor.

In the US, 100% safety is the unobtainable goal in everything. Yes, we worry about addiction in the terminally ill. We do Pap smears on 80+ year old women with end stage disease.

Pseudophedrine is available here, but purchases are tracked and limited. We still have heated arguments about medical marijuana, even in chemotherapy patients.

Land of the free? HA!

Maybe I am jaded, but I often wonder if some "mistakes" are not made to generate the need for further investigative procedures and billings.

I've had 3 PSA tests over 7 years and it was only before the last one that the ordering urologist instructed me to not ejaculate or exercise strenuously for 48 hours before the blood draw. I was surprised and commented that no one had told me that for the 2 earlier tests.

^^^^ Especially don't ride a bicycle or do any anal play even if you don't ejaculate.

So the jury seems to be out on wealther the bra needs to be on or off. I asked my pa who has a Phd in electronics (he does not know about my med fet), but he said that the wire could cause interference because of induction.

That said, perhaps its just the way that the cardiologist or technicians like to do it, procedures differ from country to country, hospital to hospital. After all when I was in the States I was always given a gown, whilst in Europe it was just a case of stripping off before you were examined.

User264, I do not necessarily think it is intentional in order to produce a "mistake," but I have been having PSA tests for years and STILL have not been cautioned about ejaculating, or any of the things Susie mentioned, prior to blood work. I did, however see it mentioned on this site and did a little research to confirm it. So, no fun for at least a few days before my next PSA test!

The jury is NOT out. The bra needs to be off.