An essential reference for students and practitioners working with exercise electrocardiograms (ECGs), Practical ECG for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine guides readers from theory to applied interpretation of normal and abnormal ECG traces.  The text is based on the authors’ clinical experience, published research, and over a decade of dedicated study on the interpretation of ECGs from clinical patients to elite athletes both at rest and during exercise.

This resource offers clear protocols for ECGs with an emphasis on athletes. With over 70 ECG readouts to examine, readers can practice and refine their ECG interpretation skills and increase their understanding of heart conditions identifiable through ECG testing. Troubleshooting tips throughout the text provide quick solutions to problems that may occur during ECG testing, and detailed information on interpreting the ECGs is provided for numerous conditions that practitioners are likely to encounter in real-life practice.

Divided into three parts, Practical ECG for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine begins with an overview of heart anatomy and function and a review of the methods for monitoring heart rate and function. Part II of the text describes the ECG in detail at rest and during exercise, with an emphasis on measurement and interpretation. In particular, chapter 4 examines normal and abnormal ECG findings with a detailed discussion of cardiac abnormalities. Each abnormality is accompanied by a sample ECG trace. Chapter 5 focuses on the how the exercise ECG may be used as a tool in the identification of a variety of pathologies, including coronary artery disease and exercise-induced arrhythmias, and how the ECG can assist in the differentiation of pathologic and physiologic enlargement of the left ventricle.

A special focus on the athlete’s heart follows in part III. Because physiologic adaptations associated with chronic physical training may mimic those observed in pathologic processes, part III discusses the anomalies often present in athletic individuals at rest and during exercise. This part also includes six case studies, which discuss specific problems encountered in dealing with athletes’ hearts and provide in-depth examples of conditions identifiable through an exercise ECG.

Because the ECG is so widely used in the assessment of cardiac electrical function, morphology, and circulation, understanding a normal ECG at rest and during exercise and being able to interpret findings are becoming increasingly important for noncardiologists, including health professionals, sports medicine specialists, physiotherapists, clinical exercise physiologists, and sport and exercise scientists. With its straightforward approach, Practical ECG for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine is a valuable resource for those studying and working in the field of exercise, sports medicine, and sport science as well as health professionals working with athletic and sedentary individuals at rest and in exercise stress testing.