Medical Terminology for the EKG Technician
EKG questions use a compact vocabulary of roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Learn the building blocks rather than memorizing isolated words, and you can decode unfamiliar terms on the exam.
Core building blocks
- card/i, cardi/o = heart; my/o = muscle; angi/o = vessel; vas/o = vessel; ather/o = fatty plaque; scler/o = hardening; sten/o = narrowing.
- -itis = inflammation; -osis = condition/degeneration; -pathy = disease; -megaly = enlargement; -ectomy = removal; -otomy = incision; -ostomy = opening.
- brady- = slow; tachy- = fast; hyper- = high; hypo- = low; dys- = difficult/abnormal; a-/an- = without.
Terms you must know
Arrhythmia/dysrhythmia = abnormal rhythm. Ischemia = reduced blood flow causing oxygen deprivation, often reversible. Infarction = tissue death from prolonged ischemia. Angina = chest pain from myocardial ischemia. Atherosclerosis = plaque buildup in arteries. Thrombus = clot that forms in place; embolus = clot or debris that travels. Syncope = fainting. Palpitations = perceived heartbeat. Hypertension = high blood pressure. Cardiomyopathy = disease of heart muscle. Pericarditis = inflammation of the sac around the heart.
Traps
Questions pair look-alike terms: thrombus vs. embolus, ischemia vs. infarction, bradycardia vs. tachycardia. Another trap is combining prefixes incorrectly ("hypotachycardia" is not a term). Always parse the word: prefix + root + suffix.
Worked example: Bradycardia = brady (slow) + card (heart) + -ia (condition) = slow heart rate. Tachycardia = fast heart rate. Myocardial infarction = muscle + heart + death of tissue = heart attack.